Reliability of CD-R vs. DVD-R
 

I'm thinking of getting a DVD writer, mostly because I can backup lots more
data on one disc. But I'm curious, is there any information on which medium
is more reliable for long-term storage?

Regards,

Dave

No optical media is 100% reliable for "long tem storage". the jury is still
out on DVD, but I strongly suspect that in a year or 2 we'll start seeing
lots of reports from people who have seen discs fail in storage. Just like
CDR's if they are burned poorly, or are of poor quality, they will not last.
Add to that the fact that the margin for error on a DVD is much smaller than
CDR, and you have a picture that is not too hopeful.
As always, if your data is critical, make multiple copies and always have a
"plan B".


"David Mittnacht" wrote in message
...
I'm thinking of getting a DVD writer, mostly because I can backup lots
more
data on one disc. But I'm curious, is there any information on which
medium
is more reliable for long-term storage?

Regards,

Dave

David Mittnacht wrote:
I'm thinking of getting a DVD writer, mostly because I can backup lots more
data on one disc. But I'm curious, is there any information on which medium
is more reliable for long-term storage?

Informal feedback from Media Sciences suggests that the DVD quality and
durability are much like those for CD. In particular, erasables seem to
be about as fragile. My own very limited tests support that result.

Mike
--

http://www.mrichter.com/

London Midland & Scotland wrote:

DVD-RAM is the only reliable one, use by Hospitals for backup..

Comforting to know that my medical records may be stored on such a
'reliable' medium :(

--

Graham Mayor

Hi,

poor reliability and transportability...
It's why, i systematiquely add parity files to my data. Have a look to
http://genpar2.free.fr and its forum.
http://genpar2.free.fr/phpBB2/index.php (starting forum... you can use
english.)
genpar2 computes par2 files to every directories, and can do the computation
from CD and DVD.
You are able to do raid5 with DVD... but manualy!

JMP

Dan G wrote:
|| No optical media is 100% reliable for "long tem storage". the jury
|| is still out on DVD, but I strongly suspect that in a year or 2
|| we'll start seeing lots of reports from people who have seen discs
|| fail in storage. Just like CDR's if they are burned poorly, or are
|| of poor quality, they will not last. Add to that the fact that the
|| margin for error on a DVD is much smaller than CDR, and you have a
|| picture that is not too hopeful.
|| As always, if your data is critical, make multiple copies and always
|| have a "plan B".
||
||
|| "David Mittnacht" wrote in message
|| ...
||| I'm thinking of getting a DVD writer, mostly because I can backup
||| lots more data on one disc. But I'm curious, is there any
||| information on which medium is more reliable for long-term storage?
|||
||| Regards,
|||
||| Dave

typed:

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 11:08:39 +0800, "David Mittnacht"
wrote:

I'm thinking of getting a DVD writer, mostly because I can backup
lots more data on one disc. But I'm curious, is there any
information on which medium is more reliable for long-term storage?

Regards,

Dave




DVD-RAM 100 year life span, also has errors corection and used by
many firms as a backup media..

Yeah right. Like they used to say for CDR's - blue and green are to last
10-20 years, silver 50 years and gold 100 and more years...i can send you a
couple of gold CDR's which are dead after a couple of years, always stored
in dark dry place in original housing, almost never used.
A lot of bull**** for some people to believe - not me, mate!

You have plastic, like DVD R, you have dye, like DVD R and you have
reflecting layer, like in DVD R, so it's fragile as DVD R. Period.

"David Mittnacht" wrote in message
...
I'm thinking of getting a DVD writer, mostly because I can backup
lots more
data on one disc. But I'm curious, is there any information on
which medium
is more reliable for long-term storage?

I don't know, and I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that
nobody else does either.

You might consider DVD-RAM; it has a much better error handling.

Norm Strong

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 22:53:50 +1300, London Midland & Scotland
wrote:

DVD-RAM 100 year life span, also has errors corection and used by many firms
as a backup media..

These numbers are strictly guesses. DVD-RAM has only been in use a
few years, and that's the only valid data if you really care about
your data integrity. Any data from 2 years ago is somewhat
meaningless on current backups, since both burners and media have
changed in that time.

There's not a digital medium in the world I'd count on to last 100
years, except maybe punch cards.


Neil Maxwell - I don't speak for my employer

London Midland & Scotland wrote:

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 11:08:39 +0800, "David Mittnacht"
wrote:

I'm thinking of getting a DVD writer, mostly because I can backup lots more
data on one disc. But I'm curious, is there any information on which medium
is more reliable for long-term storage?

Regards,

Dave




DVD-RAM 100 year life span, also has errors corection and used by many firms
as a backup media..



Didn't know that DVD RAM had been around that long..