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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
Dear Members:
I am about to archive images to optical media and in light of recent debates surrounding the issue of CDs x DVDs in terms of reliability I decided to do some research first before choosing the media for the job. Although I've done some basic research on the internet it is hard to know what sites provide reliable and trustworthy information that can be fully trusted. Do any of you have information to share on the benefits of using CDs and DVDs as long term storage media ? Which one is the best at this time ? I understand CDs are more "universal" and the data is not quite as compressed, but since DVDs are tempting due to their much greater storage capacity in the same physical space, I would like to know how reliable they are (more error prone than CDs ?) and how long they are expected to last compared to CDs. Do you have information on the differences between the two media ? Would you suggest any specific web site that offers detailed and reliable informaition on the subject ? Thank you in advance for your help, Joseph Chamberlain |
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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
Joseph Chamberlain, DDS wrote:
Dear Members: I am about to archive images to optical media and in light of recent debates surrounding the issue of CDs x DVDs in terms of reliability I decided to do some research first before choosing the media for the job. Although I've done some basic research on the internet it is hard to know what sites provide reliable and trustworthy information that can be fully trusted. Do any of you have information to share on the benefits of using CDs and DVDs as long term storage media ? Which one is the best at this time ? I understand CDs are more "universal" and the data is not quite as compressed, but since DVDs are tempting due to their much greater storage capacity in the same physical space, I would like to know how reliable they are (more error prone than CDs ?) and how long they are expected to last compared to CDs. Do you have information on the differences between the two media ? Would you suggest any specific web site that offers detailed and reliable informaition on the subject ? Take a look he http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...m-storage.html I use DLTs for backup... -- Jørn Dahl-Stamnes http://www.dahl-stamnes.net/dahls/Foto/ |
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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
In article ,
Joseph Chamberlain, DDS wrote: Dear Members: I am about to archive images to optical media and in light of recent debates surrounding the issue of CDs x DVDs in terms of reliability I decided to do some research first before choosing the media for the job. [snip] The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a site on the "Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs". It has a link to "Special Publication 500-252, October 2003", a pdf titled "Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs -- A Guide for Librarians and Archivists". This 50 page report has chapters on ensuring that your digital content remains available: disc structure, longevity, conditions that affect the media and cleaning. With proper handling of the media, this report is optimistic. The site is at: http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/index.html |
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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
"Bruce Uttley" wrote in message ... In article , Joseph Chamberlain, DDS wrote: Dear Members: I am about to archive images to optical media and in light of recent debates surrounding the issue of CDs x DVDs in terms of reliability I decided to do some research first before choosing the media for the job. [snip] The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a site on the "Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs". It has a link to "Special Publication 500-252, October 2003", a pdf titled "Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs -- A Guide for Librarians and Archivists". This 50 page report has chapters on ensuring that your digital content remains available: disc structure, longevity, conditions that affect the media and cleaning. With proper handling of the media, this report is optimistic. The site is at: http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/index.html In addition, although I don't have the link, the US Library of Congress also has guidelines posted for the use of CD/DVD media and I can speak from first hand knowledge of the LoC's use of CD's for long term storage of their current image library. Search the LoC website and I'm sure you'll find the information. -- Rob "A disturbing new study finds that studies are disturbing" |
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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
Jørn Dahl-Stamnes wrote:
Joseph Chamberlain, DDS wrote: Dear Members: I am about to archive images to optical media and in light of recent debates surrounding the issue of CDs x DVDs in terms of reliability I decided to do some research first before choosing the media for the job. Although I've done some basic research on the internet it is hard to know what sites provide reliable and trustworthy information that can be fully trusted. Do any of you have information to share on the benefits of using CDs and DVDs as long term storage media ? Which one is the best at this time ? I understand CDs are more "universal" and the data is not quite as compressed, but since DVDs are tempting due to their much greater storage capacity in the same physical space, I would like to know how reliable they are (more error prone than CDs ?) and how long they are expected to last compared to CDs. Do you have information on the differences between the two media ? Would you suggest any specific web site that offers detailed and reliable informaition on the subject ? Take a look he http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...m-storage.html I use DLTs for backup... Following two DLT drive failures and one tape failure in 3 years I now use Sony AIT tape drives for backup [1]. Personally whatever you are doing I'd keep two copies, if you don't want to go to the expense of tape storage, I'd keep everything on at least one HD, with a DVD backup to boot, therefore hopefully if one fails you've still got the other to fall back on. The trick is to ensure that you keep a check on both [2]. [1] I know propietary and other things say use DLT or something but they run a hell of a lot quieter, faster, and so far have been a hell of a lot more reliable. And they were cheaper to boot. [2] I say this I keep warning a client against archiving to tape, and then deleting the originals from HD. This is despite them having plenty of room free nowadays and the cheap price of HDs. They've already had one tape fail (taking the drive with it) [3], but that was a current backup tape. Just hope non of the archive tapes ever fail on the day one of them is needed....... [3] Which also meant that because they had to be able to get at the archives they had to go DDS again and not upgrade the tape drive :-/ -- Jon B Above email address IS valid. http://www.bramley-computers.co.uk/ Apple Laptop Repairs. |
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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
"Jørn Dahl-Stamnes" wrote in message
... Joseph Chamberlain, DDS wrote: Dear Members: I am about to archive images to optical media and in light of recent debates surrounding the issue of CDs x DVDs in terms of reliability I decided to do some research first before choosing the media for the job. Although I've done some basic research on the internet it is hard to know what sites provide reliable and trustworthy information that can be fully trusted. Do any of you have information to share on the benefits of using CDs and DVDs as long term storage media ? Which one is the best at this time ? I understand CDs are more "universal" and the data is not quite as compressed, but since DVDs are tempting due to their much greater storage capacity in the same physical space, I would like to know how reliable they are (more error prone than CDs ?) and how long they are expected to last compared to CDs. Do you have information on the differences between the two media ? Would you suggest any specific web site that offers detailed and reliable informaition on the subject ? Take a look he http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...m-storage.html I use DLTs for backup... Oh my here's that infamous article again. How much you want to bet IBM their doctor associate have a new storage media on the horizon and this 2-5 year claim is just a means to discredit the use of CD/DVD and to position the new media as the archival panacea. Fact, all media has it's failure point. That failure rate increases if the media isn't handled properly regardless if it's CD/DVD, Hard Drive, or the most highly acclaimed TAPE. -- Rob "A disturbing new study finds that studies are disturbing" |
#7
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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
I am about to archive images to optical media and in light of recent
debates surrounding the issue of CDs x DVDs in terms of reliability I decided to do some research first before choosing the media for the job. I recently tried opening some files backed up to CD in 1999 and 2000. 100% failure. In some cases the disc couldn't be read, on others the file names would display but the files could not be opened. HP drive ; dics were things like Dyasan, Verbatim, TDK. All CD-Rs. Don't remember which exactly. So much for 100 year shelf life. Malcolm |
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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
Today Bruce Uttley commented courteously on the subject at
hand I am about to archive images to optical media and in light of recent debates surrounding the issue of CDs x DVDs in terms of reliability I decided to do some research first before choosing the media for the job. [snip] The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a site on the "Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs". It has a link to "Special Publication 500-252, October 2003", a pdf titled "Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs -- A Guide for Librarians and Archivists". This 50 page report has chapters on ensuring that your digital content remains available: disc structure, longevity, conditions that affect the media and cleaning. With proper handling of the media, this report is optimistic. The site is at: http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/index.html IMHO, the only real alternative any of us have is to follow the technology and continually update our backups as new, proven stuff comes along. How many of us still have 8" or 5.25" or 3.5" disks we can't read anymore for any of a hundred reasons? Ditto for CD-R/RW and DVD-R/RW. They work fine today, and will for years to come if cared for properly. And, if you use the IT "grandfathering" method of keeping at least 3 sets, and rotating the oldest out as the newest comes in. It has also been debated here what the best format is for preserving graphics long-term. It certainly is /not/ PSD or pspimage! If, for no other reason, Adobe or Corel might be out-of-business when you try to retrieve your irreplaceable images. Ditto, IMHO, for RAW/NEF. What do you do if Canon, Nikon, Adobe, whomever stops supporting your incantation? Again, all of this is fine for today, as are TIFF, PNG, JPEG, and others. Today, we have Macs and Windoze FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. Who knows what there will be in 5, 10, 100 years? But, to come back to earth, who among us doesn't have boxes and boxes of old snap shots and 35mm slides, that they've taken or they rescued from a relative's house? Me? I've got 8,000+ slides, and several thousand unnamed old family B&Ws alone. My daughter says that if I don't name this stuff, she's going to throw them away after I'm dead. And, I say - "so what?". I started with floppies, went to Zip Disks, then CD-R, now DVD-R. When the next better mouse trap comes along, I'll move along. And, these are just the musings of a fool, YMMD. grin BTW, I use UDF most of the time for my optical media to get 115 character file names, up from the 64 allowed by Joliet. But, when I got my new Windoze XP Pro SP2 box last October, the Windoze device driver crashes almost all the time upon loading or attempting to read UDF-formatted CDs or DVDs. And, while not as serious, SP2 also truncates the 32-char UDF volume names to 15. I /know/ this problem exists, I can Google for it and two of my most knowledgeable computer guru friends can verify it. UDF works fine on Win 98, 2000, NT, ME, and XP through SP1. But, Bill the Gates broke something either in the base SP2 code - probably for his bull**** non-security - or he broke it in one of the hundreds of "critical updates" since. Who knows? All I know is that the MS KB has no-thing to say about it, and the many MVPs on Usenet claim the problem doesn't exist. But, when I Google, I can find people just like me, wandering the desert looking for help. Anybody on this NG know what I'm talking about? Better still, do you know how to fix it? I have to keep my old SP1 box until/unless I find a cure and/or continually buy more and more external HDs, and hope /they/ will read in 20 years! -- ATM, aka Jerry |
#9
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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
Today Robert R Kircher, Jr. commented courteously on the
subject at hand The site is at: http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/index.html In addition, although I don't have the link, the US Library of Congress also has guidelines posted for the use of CD/DVD media and I can speak from first hand knowledge of the LoC's use of CD's for long term storage of their current image library. Search the LoC website and I'm sure you'll find the information. The Library of Congress and the National Archives have billions of /your/ dollars to develop and maintain the very best in preservation. So, it doesn't surprise me at all that it takes them 50 pages to say what I can in one sentence - "don't touch the media and keep it in a cool, dry place". Big deal! -- ATM, aka Jerry |
#10
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CDs and DVDs for archival of images.
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