I have used CD and DVD for backup. Some of the DVDs did only last a year or
so. The CDs lasted at least 3 years before the first errors were noticed.
These where just some brands found at Beastie Buy, so there is no fancy gold
coating involved I guess. I don't consider this media as suitable for
backup any more, only for temporary storage or for file sharing.
My solution these days is quite simple. I obtained a removable rack from
TigerDirect.com for about $25, and then purchased a couple of 250GB ATA-100
hard drives (they are slowest and cheapest at the moment, had great rebates
at the time) for backup. Works great, fast, reliable and has room for
everything I need at the moment. If space runs out then it is just a matter
of adding a new disk. The deteriorating magnetism is no issue as long as
you use them every now and then, as you do when you are backing up.
This is the cheapest and fastest way to back large amount of data up.
J
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Whitmire" <bwhitmire@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 6:58 AM
Subject: [OM] Re: Back up and storage
>
> Well, you guys just gave me a nice scare. Well, you guys and my CD-DVD
> drive. So I'm reading all this stuff about backup, and the dangers
inherent
> in cheap CDs and DVDs (Mine are Staples brand), and I'm thinking I might
be
> in deep do-do. At the moment everything is also on my HD, but if that goes
> then it's the CDs and DVDs that will save me.
>
> So I pulled out my oldest CD, which is about 3 years old, to see if the
> image was still accessible. Loaded it in the drive, which whirred
> incessantly, and then stopped. No picture. Windows Explorer didn't even
> acknowledge that there was a file on the CD. Hell, it didn't acknowledge
> there was a freaking CD. Mild panic. I took the CD downstairs to Esteemed
> Wife's computer. Loaded up the CD. Phew! It took forever, but Mickeysoft
> Imaging finally showed me the image on the CD.
>
> Which brings me to my question. Say I'm about 90 percent sure I'm going to
> switch to Apple. You Mac-heads out there got any recommendations for
> external hard drives to daisy-chain? I'm not looking for the gold
standard.
> Don't have the cash to buy a computer _and_ a one of those 2TB Raid
arrays.
> But a couple of, say 250GB external drives ought to do me for a while.
>
> Recommendations appreciated.
>
> --Bob
>
>
>
>
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