[MCaver]

Anyone have experneice with lightweight recovery mechanisms? I'm thinking more of parity and recovery files than things like tape backup systems of CDs. I've been thinking that burning my photos to CD would be a lot more resilient if I had data recovery mechanisms built in on the CD itself (and a backup CD copy of course). I have some experience with parity files, but the software for creating them doesn't seem to like subdirectories, with I make extensive use of. I'd hate to have to make parity files for every directory! I've tried both SmartPar and QuickPar. Anyone have any expereince or suggestions in this area?

[MCaver]

If anyone cares I'm thinking of using PAR2 to create recovery files for each subdirectory of my photos, breaking them into 700Mb chunks and burning them to CDs, recovery records and all. Eventually I'd like to end up with 2 archive hard drives (one off site) and maybe a CD copy somewhere for easy use. For now, 2 CDs and a hard drive. Anyone shoot holes in this plan? The recovery files take up an additional 10% of space, but it's worth it for the protection.

[MCaver]

Eeks! I have 14,671 photos, taking up 30Gb!

[Tom]

Wouldn't DVD be a better backup option? DVD burners are getting reasonably cheap at a little over $100 AR and I think the extra space / less hassle would be worth it. My computer came with a DVD+RW burner but I've been to lazy to get everything organized and backup my HD. The parity recovery files seem like a good idea. For now I got a 160 GB hard drive for $75 which is my primary backup.

[MCaver]

A DVDR would be great if I had the $$ but I'm strapped until after the holidays, and maybe beyond.

[Slugman]

I just got an 80 gig external hard drive for $100, but it came with Norton Ghost so I feel extra secure. I also just purchased the McAfee Internet Security suite for $70 and a $40 mail-in rebate. It should keep out most threats. If the house catches fire, I just grab the external and head for safety. I was going to get a CD burner for backup, but Tanja pointed out that our 600mhz computer was semi-obsolete, and any new computer likely would have a CD or DVD burner installed. Up until now, I've had no firewall, no backup, no nothing. Talk about living dangerously!

[Sore Feet]

DVDs would be the easier way to go hassle wise, imo. Except that writable DVDs are hella expensive compared to CDRs.

[Dayhike Mike]

[MCaver]

Thanks for the par2 info. I've been running some tests at default block size and 10% redundancy and things look good. Smaller block size would make more sense since I'm trying to protect against sector/block corruption, not entire missing parts. I've been using QuickPar and it's very nice, even integrates into the shell. I already have the CDR hardware so I'm not worried about that. Blanks are cheap.

[H. Hound]

Before you feel safe and secure with CD backup, you might want to read this article. Personally, I back up everything I care about to a toy server, with mirrored hard drives. If I was feeling really paranoid I would use offline file synchronization and keep synchronized copies on my laptop. Just my 2c - KN

[Alan Bauer]

I have no faith in CD backups beyond 12 months and this being in a fully dust-free, non-damp or humid or light environment. Therefore the way I have done things is that each year I make sure my data and all photos go through a complete full updated backup from beginning to end (I back up as I go throughout the year the new material). I simply destroy the old set then. What this does is gives me a setup where I always have a backup set on CD that is <12 months old. I also have a 120gb hard disk that is my other backup. For a personal example: a CD of images from a friend of two trips we did together in 2000....three different drives all fail to read it now. But what this story starts to tell follows what I have read and heard from others...major brands like TDK, Maxell, etc... all failing in less than 4 years.

[MCaver]

Just to clarify, from my earlier post:

[Slugman]

I remember when CDs were marketed as lasting "forever", but about 1/2 of all the music CDs I've ever bought now don't work. Average Americans screwed by big biz again!

[Malachai Constant]

I think the manufactured CD's have a pretty long life if not dirty or scratched because they are nothing more than hoes burnt in an Al film. The burnt ones are made by a photo process and deteriorate over time even if unplayed.

[Tom]

How do you use PAR2? I downloaded something called QuickPar. Is this the program most use? Is there a way to add complete directories? Also, what happens if your parity file goes bad? Or are there parity files on parity files?