Do you know what will replace optical media !

S

SudburyOntario

Gawd
Joined
May 5, 2008
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575
I want to ask how people are backing up their discs, or media

Make a double.

Are you including the cd key into the ISO on that single back up ?

What about the safest form of keeping the information from becoming corrupted!

How about just keeping them on the hard drive.

Perhaps your different and prefer the disc to be extracted into a folder for future use of not having to locate discs.

Discuss ! :cool:
 
Let me grab my crystal ball...

Nobody knows. We just got Blu-Ray. Holographic media has been talked about for a long time. There are some other proposed formats like protein-coated disks but those are still years off.

I rip and re-encode my DVD's as videos and I make disk images of all my games/software with Alcohol 120%. I have file server with a RAID 5 array at my parents house and a media center machine at my apartment so I have two copies of everything (plus all the family pictures and such).
 
I thought about creating a file server aswell, but I'm not doing anything big for the moment. Would you agree for myself that just having a double disc copy of things would do ? Rather, how has your file server helped you so far ?
 
I don't know about you, but some of my older CD-R backups have been unreadable after 10 yrs. Therefore, I always have a copy on a HDD somewhere.

Flash memory is quickly becoming more convenient than optical media as far as personal data backups and file transfer media goes. I also believe they could replace optical media in retail as well.
 
hmm, I didn't think they degraded over time. aside from using them of course. I am still bickering with myself as to what the most productive form and safest form of back up would be. Should I have a two discs laying around with the same information on it, or should I just use one ( but not if they degrade as you mentioned over time ). Perhaps the hard drive is still a viable solution until SSD becomes the norm. Even then, use one drive or 2. I don't know why this is bothering me now, but it is and until I have answers.. I'm going to be here online lol.
 
SudburyOntario said:
Would you agree for myself that just having a double disc copy of things would do ? Rather, how has your file server helped you so far ?
Click to expand...

Like enginurd said, the optical disks degrade over time. Having the file server/media center gives me quick access to everything and I feel that my data is safe.

I found an old Compaq machine that was being thrown out with a 500 MHz AMD K7. I put in some old SDRAM that I had laying around (384 MB) and I bought a cheap 4 port SATA controller and gigabit ethernet card for $40 total. I'm using Freenas as the operating system. Other than the hard drives it was a cheap and easy project and its been running great for almost 2 years now.
 
Okay, I did a lot of reading and enginurd is right about the degrading, DeathFromBelow.. I am assuming an external hard drive can last a very long time if I rarely use it ? The data is megnetic so hopefully it doesn't require power if left alone for a few years.

I'm going to make a backup of my discs, onto new ones, than make ISOs onto the hard drive. I just have to remember to include the key haha. Text file next to the ISO or text file integrated into the ISO ? Your opinion counts !

Solid State Disk must have zero problems when it comes to reliability and longevitiy, so I am really looking forward to the price drops. As with anything, current hard drives can fail, ( while keeping cost down ) so I try to keep my movies on disc and the more important files ( music, photos, documents, ect.. ) on my computer. I'm sure everyone can agree to that. Besides, it's just movies lol.

I'm afraid the server is going to be out of my simplicity factor .. anyone else suffer from anxiety ?
I was thinking about picking up an external seagate hard drive to serve as my storage. Should I pick up two of them incase one dies or as my question above, will it be okay for a very long time ?

More to come after response !!! lol Thanks
 
SudburyOntario said:
I am assuming an external hard drive can last a very long time if I rarely use it ? The data is megnetic so hopefully it doesn't require power if left alone for a few years.
Click to expand...
An external drive would be perfect for that sort of usage.

I'm going to make a backup of my discs, onto new ones, than make ISOs onto the hard drive. I just have to remember to include the key haha. Text file next to the ISO or text file integrated into the ISO ? Your opinion counts !
Click to expand...
What do you mean by key?

Why even bother burning more disks? Just store the ISO files on an external hard drive and use something like daemon tools to mount them. Get a second external drive if you want redundancy.

Solid State Disk must have zero problems when it comes to reliability and longevitiy, so I am really looking forward to the price drops.
Click to expand...
Solid state drives use flash memory. Flash memory has a limited number of write cycles and are slow to write data to. The advantages of flash memory are no moving parts (less heat, more reliable) and faster random read speeds.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
An external drive would be perfect for that sort of usage.


What do you mean by key?

Why even bother burning more disks? Just store the ISO files on an external hard drive and use something like daemon tools to mount them. Get a second external drive if you want redundancy.
Click to expand...

By key.. I was meaning the product key. or serial number. I see you agree with the external hard drive usage, should I still be worried about anything ? :cool:
 
SudburyOntario said:
By key.. I was meaning the product key. or serial number.
Click to expand...

Oh, I see what you mean. I just have an excel spreadsheet with all my product keys.

I see you agree with the external hard drive usage, should I still be worried about anything ?
Click to expand...
Not that I can think of. It sounds like an external drive would meet all your needs.
 
My ideal scenario without a server would be to have two external drives, different make/model bought at different times, with the same data on them, updated in alternating intervals.
 
Just a different question, I know smaller hard drives as the main in a computer is a great idea, but those won't be around much longer.. suggest to partition it say a 500gb - 80/420 I find it rather wasted space if I'm going to use the external drive.. creative input ;)

I'm going to check out the external hard drives today, I was also thinking about internal ones, but that probably isn't a good idea for all sorts of reasons lol.. If it's cheap enough I'll get two externals s mentioned. thanks !
 
If you're going with a single HD whether internal or external to archive your movies, then do yourself a favor and create .par2 files for your DVDs using QuickPar. It won't protect you from mechanical drive failures as you would get with a hardware RAID solution, but at least you can get by without data loss if your HD develops a few bad sectors down the road.
 
I'm just going to be saving my movies to dvd as I don't really mind if they eventually degrade.. seen them once. I have looked and found some interesting external hard drives from both WD and Seagate, I am still looking to see what one would do with an internal hard drive of 500gb, I use an 80gb right now and the external will also help from theft & connectivity to my two laptops. I have eSata on my main tower so 3gb/ps will be nice.

I've also looked into some hard drive utilities to monitor the S.M.A.R.T. per HDD.
One back up should do justice for 5 years than take it from there.. Thanks again for all the help.:)
 
After many hours of thinking, I finally came up with two scenerios.

1. Use small hard drives in the computers, get an external and use that as my main file storage. Get a second external as the copy. ( cheap form of raid and simple for me to do ).

2. Get a bigger hard drive for my computer, and store whatever information I'm using onto it. Get one external and use it as the copy.

I know both seem realistic and if something happens to either, I will have a backup somewhere. I think that external is the best option for keeping my data safe. I keep my password on and set so my files are hidden from other users. ( hence if stolen can't be read in another computer )

Per say if the hard drives ever run out of room, and I'm very careful on how much data I keep stored.. both options would seem easy to upgrade sizes. As I mentioned, I have anxiety and these things can get me going if I think about it a lot. ( 13 years in computers has it's effect )
 
On a sidenote, RAID isn't a backup solution... it simply minimizes downtime and can protect against hardware failures.

Anyhow, it looks like you have a good idea of what will work for you. If you want to encrypt your data, you could get GPG or there are some other stuff that gets recommended a lot in the storage subforum, but its too early in the morning for me to remember.
 
SudburyOntario said:
I think that external is the best option for keeping my data safe. I keep my password on and set so my files are hidden from other users. ( hence if stolen can't be read in another computer )
Click to expand...

enginurd said:
If you want to encrypt your data, you could get GPG or there are some other stuff that gets recommended a lot in the storage subforum, but its too early in the morning for me to remember.
Click to expand...

I've been using Truecrypt for awhile now.
 
I'm going to check out Truecrypt & search for the GPG, I just noticed that my 1. method wouldn't be so good once my internal hard drive has to be replaced with a bigger one.. that would sort of throw things out of porportion I think. Anyone up for my 2. option ? Thanks guys
 
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