Tony Pendrey

I was browsing through a photography mag the other day and was reading an article about the storage of digital images.

It would seem that CD-R and DVD-R get an emphatic no in the photographic world. Just deemed too unreliable.

The same applies to the new generation of high density flash memories.

They, (Amatuer Photographer) recommend a hard drive, on the basis that a 500gb hard drive is very cost effective.

Now, as an old computer geek that seems to go against all that I have ever known in the world of data processing.

That hard drive is a little magnetic disk spinning at 7200rpm, and rest assured it WILL fail one day.

500gb is an awful lot of stuff to lose.

It seems that as current technology stands there is no way to guarantee long term archiving of digital data. And the sheer volume of data that we now all produce just exacerbates the matter.

I myself am getting more and more CDs and DVDs failing big time. And they are not that old.

Ah Yes, the Soviet Union. All them wheatfields and ballet in the evenings

sippog

There is no answer to this problem and i have my doubts they're ever will be. Everything wears out eventually, it's just a question of longevity. The only workaround is to make multiple copies of important things - in the hope some survive - and also to renew them periodically.

One object lesson: got a copy of a rare film? Don't hoard it, spread it around. You never know when you may need a backup

Fellwanderer

Got to agree. I make at least two copies of any recordings that are especially important to me and unavailable commercially.

All the best
FELL

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MarkG

But, generally, it will either fail within a couple of weeks or after several years. I typically replace hard disks every 3 years or so and the only times I've lost data it's been due to bloody NTFS deleting files after a PC crash rather than the hard disk failing. Also, if the data is important you'll a) back it up and b) use a RAID system.

In comparison, I've been scanning in all my old 35mm still film negatives from 5-15 years ago and the majority have degraded substantially even when stored in plastic wallets.

Edit: I've also been copying data off of 10-15 year old CD-R disks lately, and only a couple of files failed to work. The biggest problem is that if you try to copy an entire CD, Windows will stop at the point where it gets a CRC error, rather than ignoring that file and continuing... annoying when it happens 5% of the way through the disk and you have to manually figure out which one failed so you can copy the rest.

clitheroekid

I have heard success stories of important CD's & DVD's being stored in home deep freezers

DB7

Seems a good alternative to me. A 500gb external usb is under £100 and will hardly experience heavy use as a slave drive. I've had a few HD's go west and you normally get minor r/w errors before the problems become terminal.

DB7

I've done likewise, keep them all in the coldest cupboard in the house. A bit like Delboy's haunted toilet in there!

Steve Crook

Get a linux system. You can read the disk as a raw device and not have to go through the Windoze drivers which do tend to give up at the first sign of problems

Steve

spinalman

Hard drives are a real no-no. If they are infrequently used they will be more likely to fail.

DVDs and CDs are cheap, but significantly they are cheaper to make multiple copies.

My advice would be to buy a £100 DVD/CD duplicator and just make a batch copy of all your CDs.DVDs and put them in a box in your mum's freezer.

I copy professionally, and the formats that fail/degrade the most are (in order) VHS/Umatic, Hard drive, DV, DVD, CD

Paul

Tony Pendrey

Can I tell my old mum that you gave me the OK to bin half the nosh in her freezer so I could stuff it with my precious DVDs ?

Ah Yes, the Soviet Union. All them wheatfields and ballet in the evenings

maturin

I'm with Sippog all the way. I recently had a strange midnight craving to watch Tora! Tora1 Tora! and found that not only the original but the back-up wouldn't register in my trusty LG DVD player. A quick phone call and I'd traced a copy I made for a friend across town. 100 baht tip and petrol money to a motor bike taxi guy and thirty minutes later I was watching battleships settle (after making a back-up of course).
Moral: pay it forward.
R

essaljay

As a photographer the three magic words to me are "backup, backup and backup". As has been stated before, hard drives can crash with catastrophic results. I keep RAW files on dedicated discs manufactured by fuji or kodak. (the fuji disks have an ultra-violet shield and kodak use gold for longevity). All of these are copied in bulk onto DVDR discs. I have never tried to freeze a disc but I would have thought it would have made them very brittle plus there might be a problem with condensation and possible warping.

lordtednfs

As soon as I buy a new DVD I make a copy of it before watching it and then store the original in my apartment downstairs, 20 feet below normal ground level and very cool indeed. Good place to store decent wine as well, hic hic.

orpheum

Is there any reason why vhs should be disregarded.I have tapes dating back to 1979 and they are still in good condition and play clearly.

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marker

I think vhs are worth keeping, many people have got rid of them due to space issues

Cheers Marker