Hello Brad, I haven't been archiving on this media personally (I still have everything on a huge internal HDD), but do have some idea from forums etc. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hd-back.shtml points out that putting lables or writing on CD can cause the data to be lost. There are some other interesting points in the article as well.
I also remember reading another thread where some claimed that "re-writable" DVDs were more reliable than plain "once-writable" media. I am not sure if that is true for CD's as well. Most big banks use "tapes" as backup medium. I am not sure if that is because they are more reliable, or just cheaper. -Navjot On Wed, 08 Dec 2004 09:34:49 -0800, Brad Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Archiving: > > I've been using CD's for archiving for at least 6 years. When I started, I > used an HP burner that worked at 2X. It still works. In fact, if a CD > won't read on another burner or CD drive, it may read on the old HP. This > doesn't surprise me, running slower would seem likely to be more robust. > > But, as I try to access older CD's, I consistently find files that I can't > open - with any CD reader, even the HP. While CD's written by the HP are > likely to have fewer bad files, it seems that virtually all of the older > CD's have some files that are unreadable, or if read, can't be opened by > photoshop for one reason or another. It seems that the question isn't if I > am going to lose files, but how many on a given CD. > > Now, I may be doing things that increase my chances of losing a file, or > even an entire CD, but I haven't been able to identify what I might be > doing. I pretty successfully avoid scratches, and beyond that, I keep the > CD's in books that have sleeves in them. They are stored at room > temperature which is never above 75 degrees, nor below 60 and the humidity > remains in a range around 40% - not a lot higher or lower. > > I've always purchased the more expensive name brand CD's, even though I am > somewhat suspicious that on occasion what I got was no better than the no > name sold by Fry's out here. In talking to others, I hear the same stories > irrespective of brand of CD used. > > CD's written by companies (that contain software, such as my Photoshop CD) > seem to do better, I rarely have any trouble, and on the rare occasion I do, > putting it in the old HP has always taken care of it. I've never had to > request a replacement CD and I don't back them up - I probably should. > > I have been in the habit of making multiple backups, so I haven't lost > anything of value - yet. > > I've been considering DVD's, but reading about the problems they many have, > they seem to be an even more fugitive medium. > > Someone must have a solution, must have found way to reduce the losses. The > only way I can see to reduce my losses is to write everything on my old HP > burner and make multiple copies - perhaps 4 copies each. That seems a bit > much as it reduces the effective capacity of a CD to about 160 megabytes. > > Suggestions? > > Brad > > -- > Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection > of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house. > Henri Poincare --Science and Hypothesis > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body
