DVD vs HDD for storage

[blackzc]

I got an email from tiger today. 1TB HDD 39$. Um ok. Got me to thinking about storage. I currently have a closet full of pictures, videos, games,drivers ect that are all on DVD.

Lets say i have 1 TB of stuff in my closet on DVD

A 1TB HDD would hold everything i have on DVD with some space left

But DVD's dont fail, HDD's do you say?

A pack of 50 dual layer 8.5GB DVDs are 39$ Thats 425GB of storage. You have to buy 2 (plus a few extra dvds) spools of DVDs (80$) to = the storage of 1, 1 TB HDD. 80$

You could buy 2 1 TB HDD's for 80$ and back everything up twice for the same price of the DVD's. Both of them are not going to fail. Plus Finding files on a HDD is so much easier than loading DVD after DVD into your drive. Also id be more apt to delete stuff i dont need instead of letting it pile up.

What do you guys think. Time to make the change. Is this old news and im late? Have you all done this already.

Thanks for your feedback :D

[Johan]

But DVD's dont fail, HDD's do you say?

DVDs do indeed fail. They can 'rot' and fail in as little as a few years. (http://www.audioholics.com/education/audio-formats-technology/cd-and-dvd-longevity-how-long-will-they-last) They're also susceptible to damage, as a hard drive would be. Every storage medium in existence will eventually fail. Even DNA fails eventually, and it stores more information than anything under the sun...

I have an external backup drive, use DVDs for periodic backups, and have an online subscription with Mozy for video/picture/document backup off site, in case of fire, electrical surge, or theft.

Think multiple options and redundancy with your data. There are many external online backup sites. (http://www.onlinebackupsreview.com/)

I will caution you, however; Mozy took over a month to backup 100 Gigs of data. It slowed my computer down tremendously during that period, even when adjusted for minimal data transfer while I used the thing. Now that the backup is done it updates the backup very quickly and simply.

[gzsfrk]

RAID 1+0 NAS using 4 1TB drives with two spares as your home data backup solution using an generational nightly backup like Norton Ghost. Barring a fire/flood/home destroying natural disaster, you'll be all but bullet-proof for a relatively low cost.

[blackzc]

DVDs do indeed fail. They can 'rot' and fail in as little as a few years. (http://www.audioholics.com/education/audio-formats-technology/cd-and-dvd-longevity-how-long-will-they-last) They're also susceptible to damage, as a hard drive would be. Every storage medium in existence will eventually fail. Even DNA fails eventually, and it stores more information than anything under the sun...



Sure, over the past 10 years ive lost about 4 hard drives. And every DVD/CD ive burned is still kicking.

But yeah important stuff such as pics, homevids should be backed up at home and off site.

[Anenome]

No on-site backup is true backup. You must have a multi-faceted system. And, of course, it depends on how important your data is to you.

I use Carbonite for off-site backup. Unlimited storage space for $50 a year, and backs up in real-time to the cloud.

As for DVDs, in the worst case scenario they can fail in a few years--this is true--but you're right that they're generally fine. Stored out of the light, in a cool place, without high humidity, they should last 25-50 years. If that's not good enough there are special archive DVDs which use gold foil for better reliability.

Beyond that, only use DVD+!!! for backups. The reliability is much greater over DVD-.

[White667]

All storage breaks eventually, maybe cloud storage is the answer?

[blackzc]

All storage breaks eventually, maybe cloud storage is the answer?


That would be off site such as carbonite right? I would trust that less than a HDD or DVD. But as was said a fire or flood can happen. Both are not going to fail at the same time. At least not until 2012. I have pictures and videos that if i lost id be crushed. I need to get on this online backup for those.