DVD Backup longevity

petersmart

petersmart

Messages
5,001
Edit My Images
Yes
Not quite sure where to put this so I leave it to the mods to change it if necessary.

I have been using DVDs (always DataWrite because over the years have never had a problem with them) to keep backups for about 9-10 years now without any probs.

But I thought I would do a check to see how long data would last in unfavourable conditions and also if the write speed made any difference.

So I made 3 discs all with the same data and used the MD5 checksum generator to keep a check on any corruption on the disks.

I burnt them at 16x 8x and 4x burn speed.

I've always used 4x burn speed cos I always felt that the higher speeds might not burn properly.

Then I put the discs face upwards in 3 clear plastic DVD cases and left them on my windowsill so the sun and light could hit the dye side.

In this way they were exposed to light and heat as the cases heated up.

I burnt them on 3rd March 2011 and checked them today.

The results?

HORRIFIC!

When put them into the DVD re-writer they all refused to open and simply hung until I took them out of the computer.

The obvious conclusion is that all DVD backups should be kept well away from sunlight and/or heat.

This might seem to be a simplistic test but at least I now know how fragile these disks are.

It also shows me that kept in the proper environment they can last for years as mine have.
.
 
Normal DVD should not be considered as a form of long term backup.

You can get archival quality onesbut they are quite pricey.
With the price of HDD so low even for 2 terabyte drives just buy 2 or 3 and use them.
Also remember if your backup is in the same building as the original data it is not a backup just a copy.
 
With more and more companies doing the "cloud" hopefully oine storage prices will plummet. Always handy to have them somewhere else but easily backed up.
 
There was a news item about a year ago that DVDs were not a safe/stable as had been thought.

I agree with PsiFox, HDDs are very cheap. For good safety you need two externals HDDs, one which, as Gazfy has suggested, needs to kept off site.

HDDs also have a lifetime, so for important stuff it is probably a good idea to replace the backup drives after a few years, though the PC I am using now has an eight year old drive, which seems (I'm tempting fate here, aren't I) to be going strong.

Dave
 
Well as I said in the post I have used DVDs as backup for years now and have backups going back about 9-10 years with no problems but I only ever use DataWrite DVDs now.

I have tried a few cheap ones to test them but they are usually so bad that they often fail on the data verification stage of burning.

And that test was probably the worst scenario I could have used (apart from the microwave one) so I'll still be using DVDs as a reliable backup medium.

.
 
I did read somewhere over a year ago that DVD-Rs were only good for 1 year, so now try and keep all my photos on at least three hard drives. I do however need to get one of these hard drives stored at another location!!

My view though is to buy a new hard drive every year or so, and copy all my photos on to it, while retaining the old drives, and maybe formatting the oldest drive, and re-copying the photos back on to it.
 
vtecsilver said:
I did read somewhere over a year ago that DVD-Rs were only good for 1 year.
Click to expand...

Well that's a complete load of rubbish quite frankly.

I have always used DataWrite and have ones which I burnt years ago with no problems at all.

But as my test showed how they are stored is of vital importance and I keep all mine in DVD "books" with seperate sleeves and in this way they are shielded from sunlight etc.

But of course there are other FREE storage methods including Skydrive from Hotmail which gives you free storage of 25Gb of data, pics etc and with Siverlight it simply becomes a case of drag and drop to the relevant folders "in the cloud."

And open more accounts and you get even more FREE storage.

This is a development of cloud computing which is already taking off big time with Apple, Google, Hotmail etc all behind the concept.

So perhaps the future has already caught up with us and thinking about hard storage methods such as Hard drives, DVDs, Blu-ray etc is already becoming out of date.

.
 
Many moons ago I copied the complete 'my documents' folder onto a dvd, it was 2x speed so that will let you know how long ago it was. Just over 1 year later I could not access any of the info from the disk.

I've never used the dvd method since, hard drives only.
 
cloud is great if you have the bandwidth to support the amount of data you want to upload, which most of the country does not at present.

its certainly not feasible personally for me to backup 20Gb photos per shoot on a 2mb adsl connection :LOL:
 
Ouch.

I too heard about CD life problems a few years back. I have multiple external HDD's and have backup on two - just as well as I have had one of these fail on me too!

I think cloud will take over in a few years but BB upload speeds atm are cack. Yes you can download at 5-6MBs (if you're lucky) but upload is nowhere near that. So if you have say 5-6+ gig of images from a shoot it's take you all week to upload :bang:
 
Cloud type storage is nice for off site backup, but you do need the bandwidth for large files.

I currently have 2 external drives for off site that I swap over once a week, my partner keeps one in a drawer at her workplace and I drop the other off and swap them over on my way past each week. I keep 2 copies at home one working drive and time machine external so I have instant access to backups there.

In a lot of ways digital has made securing negs easier than only having a single copy that needed to be fire/theft/everything proof.
 
If you're serious about your backups, get a tape drive and a fireproof safe.

Next best is solid state or magnetic media.
 
Az_GTi said:
Ouch.

I too heard about CD life problems a few years back. I have multiple external HDD's and have backup on two - just as well as I have had one of these fail on me too!

I think cloud will take over in a few years but BB upload speeds atm are cack. Yes you can download at 5-6MBs (if you're lucky) but upload is nowhere near that. So if you have say 5-6+ gig of images from a shoot it's take you all week to upload :bang:
Click to expand...

My upload speed is 1.3megabit and I'm a legal torrenter you can upload more than you think. Put it on upload before you go bed and it will be done come morning. Also you don't have to upload your full amount there and then. It's also handy if you have 2 desktops a phone an iPad and a laptop as if you Internet you can get them.
 
Not arguing, merely stating a point. To turn your statement around, is the loss of your terabytes of data worth the cost of a decent backup?
 
mrthingyx said:
Not arguing, merely stating a point. To turn your statement around, is the loss of your terabytes of data worth the cost of a decent backup?
Click to expand...

nope completely fair point on the value of your data, i think i must have about a grand or more invested in my storage?

just not a great fan of tape as a backup, its a bit slow and clunky for the cost per mb of it.
 
I have a Raid1 NAS box with 2TB drives in which are nearly full, only problem with cloud storage is that Upload speed is still not asynchronous too the download speed until this happens its just too slow.

Would take me quite a while too upload all of my photos.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top