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Medium-sized data archive: CDs are nuts/impractical/risky; DVDs are OK...
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| ali92 |
...but will become cumbersome. I have around 500 GB (and counting) of data, mostly consisting of lossless (FLAC) and lossy (MP3) audio, but a nice-sized emulation-related collection (around 220 GB) has now entered my archive of data.
My question is: what's the best way to archive this lot of data on non-hard drive media? Since 2001, I've been using CDs for archival, but have sicne gotten a DVD burner & many blanks. So now, I'm transitioning to Taiyo Yuden (the best around) DVD-Rs for my data archival, alongside CDs for where it's convenient (like MP3-CDs, for instance). Is there a reasonable alternative to ~900 CD-Rs, ~130 DVD-Rs, or (what may become) 22 to 45 BDs (Blu-ray Discs)? I'd like Blu-Ray, but as it's not out for most consumers outside Japan, isn't a good option for me currently. Heck, I think this will be very expensive even in 2007, about 1.3 years since its launch outside Asia.
So, is a tape drive the best I can do for now, for large data archival? If I were to go with a tape drive, I'd like to use a common format that's been around for a while, is reliable/stable (of course!), and can store a lot of data (at least 20 GB/tape) natively (uncompressed). Lastly, I wish I could get it for 300 USD or lower, not counting P&P/S&H, blank tape, or any tax.
PS: Could I record & access individual files on a tape? I wouldn't want to buy a drive and find out that it can _only_ back up an entire HDD to soemthing like a single *.TAR (tarball or Tape ARchive) file, a la Norton Ghost and PowerQuest Drive Image.
Thanks for any information given about this solution... |
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| jdat |
ali92 always fit the geek question with everything laid out carefully in detail. Props to you :p
And humm sorry can't help you. But of a personal concern for myself as well.
With burned media my main issue is peeling over time :(
And for some serious tape drives 300 bucks just ain't going to cut it in the larger size ones. |
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| chojin |
i also made the transition from CD>DVD and have around 500-600 of them now.
i didn't realise they go after a long time :/ i thought as long as you keep them stored well then they're fine? |
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| ali92 |
| quote: | Originally posted by chojin
i also made the transition from CD>DVD and have around 500-600 of them now.
i didn't realise they go after a long time :/ i thought as long as you keep them stored well then they're fine? |
Yes. Even Taiyo Yuden media can go. :-(
I guess the only alternative is keep transferring, scanning, and sharing the data (as long as it's nothing that shouldn't be shared) with people. |
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| ali92 |
| I guess I'll have to hope for BD's early arrival and just stick with DVD+/-R(9 too) / DVD-RAM (single or double-sided) for stuff that only a computer can use (most data files), and CD-R + DVD+/-R for audio stuff, like my lossless (FLAC/SHN/other) & lossy (MP3/WMA/Ogg Vorbis/MPEG-4 audio) audio data. BD would seem like the high-capacity (>20 GB per piece of media) format I'll end up with. |
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| ali92 |
| quote: | Originally posted by jdat
ali92 always fit the geek question with everything laid out carefully in detail. Props to you :p
And humm sorry can't help you. But of a personal concern for myself as well.
With burned media my main issue is peeling over time :(
And for some serious tape drives 300 bucks just ain't going to cut it in the larger size ones. |
I guess you're right. There's plenty of people spending around 5000+ USD for tape drive-related stuff. 300 USD is really low for this form of storage, considering that's not far above the price of some DVD writers (newest Plextor & Pioneer is around 150--200 USD?). |
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