DVD vs External Hard Drive for backups

  • Thread starter Thread starter B__P
  • Start date Start date
B

B__P

I have a lot of files that I back up and store.
Recently I was going on an extended trip and was wondering what to do
with the hundreds of DVDs I had to keep them safe and that got me to
thinking.
What is better, storing archived files/programs/videos/music on DVDs
or using the small, affordable 500-1000 Gig external HD.

The HDs would be great for keeping all the related files together.
Less to store, less to move around.
But how safe is the data?
I've had DVDs go bad, get scratched and mess up - many more then I've
had HDs fail, but I've also had about 1000 x as many DVDs as HDs.

I was wondering if memerber of this group could help me with some
advice.
I suppose it the data is CRITICAL, I can store it on both DVD and HD,
or even several DVDs.....but in general, what does everyone have to
say?
I'd really appreciate some advice on this from the deep thinkers and
the Gurus of this group.

Bonnie
 
I have a lot of files that I back up and store.
Recently I was going on an extended trip and was wondering what to do
with the hundreds of DVDs I had to keep them safe and that got me to
thinking.
What is better, storing archived files/programs/videos/music on DVDs
or using the small, affordable 500-1000 Gig external HD.

The HDs would be great for keeping all the related files together.
Less to store, less to move around.
But how safe is the data?
I've had DVDs go bad, get scratched and mess up - many more then I've
had HDs fail, but I've also had about 1000 x as many DVDs as HDs.

I was wondering if memerber of this group could help me with some
advice.
I suppose it the data is CRITICAL, I can store it on both DVD and HD,
or even several DVDs.....but in general, what does everyone have to
say?
I'd really appreciate some advice on this from the deep thinkers and
the Gurus of this group.

Bonnie
At work I used a 2 harddisk rollover backup, the price of a harddisk
at the moment is quite unimportant.
We also had network backup, but I have never had to retrieve anything
from that.
For speed I used removable harddisk enclosures on an IDE channel,
because time is mony, and usb is quite slow.
 
I have a lot of files that I back up and store.
Recently I was going on an extended trip and was wondering what to do
with the hundreds of DVDs I had to keep them safe and that got me to
thinking.
What is better, storing archived files/programs/videos/music on DVDs
or using the small, affordable 500-1000 Gig external HD.

The HDs would be great for keeping all the related files together.
Less to store, less to move around.
But how safe is the data?
I've had DVDs go bad, get scratched and mess up - many more then I've
had HDs fail, but I've also had about 1000 x as many DVDs as HDs.

I was wondering if memerber of this group could help me with some
advice.
I suppose it the data is CRITICAL, I can store it on both DVD and HD,
or even several DVDs.....but in general, what does everyone have to
say?
I'd really appreciate some advice on this from the deep thinkers and
the Gurus of this group.

Bonnie

Why are the optical discs getting scratched or physically damaged? If they
are for backups then they shouldn't be getting touched except in case of
emergencies. How often have you had to restore your host?

Remember that optical discs can be used in any compatible drive. If the
mechanicals of your CD/DVD drive fail, just get another one and the discs
work just as well in the replacement drive. If the mechanicals fail in the
hard disk, everything is lost (or you pay thousands to retrieve it from the
platters *if* possible).

Why not use both? Optical media for permanent backups and hard disks for
short-term backups (from which you normally restore but with the optical
media as a backup in case that HD dies). I use a HD for image backups
(incremental and full image backups) but *not* an external HD. I save
permanent full image backups to optical media about every 3-5 months
depending on how many files have changed in the meantime. Every restore
that I've had to perform worked flawlessly from the internal HD (either to
restore an image to a partition or retrieve files from those images for file
restores). However, if that HD ever died, I'd lose all my backups and why I
have a set of optical discs that are off-site (so if a fire eats my host
then the optical media is still available to rebuild a new host).
 
Metspitzer said:
I haven't done the math in a while, but last time I did it was still
10 times more expensive for a hard drive.

That was back when 750G drives were the largest. Just guessing it is
still around 6-7 times more expensive.


$103 CND Western Digital WD1001FALS

$54 CND 200 pcs of Taiyo Yuden DVD-R 8X 4.7GB

So here, at least, DVD media is half the price of HDD space.

FWIW, I use both for backups.
 
Why are the optical discs getting scratched or physically damaged? If they
are for backups then they shouldn't be getting touched except in case of
emergencies. How often have you had to restore your host?

Remember that optical discs can be used in any compatible drive. If the
mechanicals of your CD/DVD drive fail, just get another one and the discs
work just as well in the replacement drive. If the mechanicals fail in the
hard disk, everything is lost (or you pay thousands to retrieve it from the
platters *if* possible).

Why not use both? Optical media for permanent backups and hard disks for
short-term backups (from which you normally restore but with the optical
media as a backup in case that HD dies). I use a HD for image backups
(incremental and full image backups) but *not* an external HD. I save
permanent full image backups to optical media about every 3-5 months
depending on how many files have changed in the meantime. Every restore
that I've had to perform worked flawlessly from the internal HD (either to
restore an image to a partition or retrieve files from those images for file
restores). However, if that HD ever died, I'd lose all my backups and why I
have a set of optical discs that are off-site (so if a fire eats my host
then the optical media is still available to rebuild a new host).

Excellent points there. I do daily incrementals to internal HD,
weekly fulls to internal and external HDs. I have all installers and
activation codes on DVD, plus a slipstreamed XP. Even if both HDs
failed simultaneously I could do a full install in a couple of days,
and get back to my current system for everything except personal
finances. For those I backup to DVD daily.
 
I have a lot of files that I back up and store.
Recently I was going on an extended trip and was wondering what to do
with the hundreds of DVDs I had to keep them safe and that got me to
thinking.
What is better, storing archived files/programs/videos/music on DVDs
or using the small, affordable 500-1000 Gig external HD.

The HDs would be great for keeping all the related files together.
Less to store, less to move around.
But how safe is the data?
I've had DVDs go bad, get scratched and mess up - many more then I've
had HDs fail, but I've also had about 1000 x as many DVDs as HDs.

I was wondering if memerber of this group could help me with some
advice.
I suppose it the data is CRITICAL, I can store it on both DVD and HD,
or even several DVDs.....but in general, what does everyone have to
say?
I'd really appreciate some advice on this from the deep thinkers and
the Gurus of this group.

Bonnie

I used DVDs for photo backups until I recently tried to recover some
and found the DVDs had become corrupted. I lost several files as a
result. Since the cost of a lost file might be substantual, I weigh
that factor into the cost calculation, and suddenly the cost of
backups to hard drives (both internal, external, and via network)
becomes very cheap. Now I ignore DVDs entirely, and back up via all
three methods to hard drives only. I rotate between the three mathods
daily.
 
Charlie said:
I used DVDs for photo backups until I recently tried to recover some
and found the DVDs had become corrupted. I lost several files as a
result. Since the cost of a lost file might be substantual, I weigh
that factor into the cost calculation, and suddenly the cost of
backups to hard drives (both internal, external, and via network)
becomes very cheap. Now I ignore DVDs entirely, and back up via all
three methods to hard drives only. I rotate between the three mathods
daily.

The only way you can ensure your backup are usable is to use them to
restore. You can enable a "verify" option but that doesn't check if the
media is readable. Restore to an unused partition to ensure your archive
will be usable whenever you need to use it. Doesn't matter if you use hard
drives. If sectors never went bad (e.g., loss of retentivity over time due
to dipole stress), why do you think chkdsk has an /r command-line parameter,
there are disk diagnostics from drive makers, and utilities exist, like
SpinRite? If your backup archive is of data file, make damn sure you can
recover them from WHATEVER backup media you use. If you are just saving
images to restore your host and you save them periodically, doing a restore
isn't really needed unless the "period" for them is months or years apart
(or over whatever period of time in which you could not tolerate the loss of
more than one image state of your host).

Recordable and rewritable optical discs do NOT use the manufacturing process
of burning pits into the substrate. They use chemicals. As such, they have
a max life expectency (although, as I recall it was 10 or 20 years). They
are also prone to loss data if overheated. Heat will make the discs lose
data (and why they don't last long and start causing errors for music CDs
when left in direct sunlight or left in your car during the hot summer).

Also, besides backing up your files, you had better save a copy of the
backup software used to make those backups. What good are those backups
many years from now if you can't get hold of the backup software that
created the backup files? How are you going to boot your computer to run
that backup software independent of any OS in a partition on your hard disk
(which isn't usable and why you need to re-image)?
 
I can't imagine using hundreds of DVDs for backups.

I would use two external harddrives, say 1TB each. Fill one up with an
initial full backup + incrementals using your favorite BU program (I
like Acronis 2010). When the first external HD fills, or no more than a
month later, start filling the 2nd one, and move the first one offsite
somewhere.

You have to consider more than just internal HD failure. What about
fire or theft? By using at least two HDs, and keeping one offsite,
you're never more than 1 month potential loss.

If you had less than 100GB I'd recommend an online backup solution,
e.g. Jungle Disk. But it sounds like you have too much data for
convenient online backup.
 
I have a lot of files that I back up and store. Recently I was going on
an extended trip and was wondering what to do with the hundreds of DVDs
I had to keep them safe and that got me to thinking.
What is better, storing archived files/programs/videos/music on DVDs or
using the small, affordable 500-1000 Gig external HD.

The HDs would be great for keeping all the related files together. Less
to store, less to move around.
But how safe is the data?
I've had DVDs go bad, get scratched and mess up - many more then I've
had HDs fail, but I've also had about 1000 x as many DVDs as HDs.

I was wondering if memerber of this group could help me with some
advice.
I suppose it the data is CRITICAL, I can store it on both DVD and HD, or
even several DVDs.....but in general, what does everyone have to say?
I'd really appreciate some advice on this from the deep thinkers and the
Gurus of this group.

Bonnie

For many years I made monthly archive backups using DVD's. More recently
I found a faster and more convenient solution - backup to a hard drive
with a docking station.

These devices are very simple. A small cube with e-SATA and/or USB
connections. Place the SATA hard drive of your choice into the slot,
power the device on, and perform your backups. When done you power down
and have the option of physically removing the drive to a shelf.
 
Back
Top