Best Back-up Method?

[SolidSnake42]

I just got my hands on a BD burner and I just have to ask, is it really that reliable to burn to BD-Rs? Do they last longer than DVDs? I know I can burn off more data per minute than DVDs, but for the price, is it right? I mean, a 25 pack of 25GB BD-Rs is about 25 bucks on Newegg, so that's 625GB (unformatted) for about 25 bucks. Lowest price on Newegg for a 640GB HDD is about 70+. Even the cheapest 500GB is a bit much on Newegg. So what I'm getting at here, are BD-Rs reliable enough for the money, considering they are cheaper per gig than HDDs?

Hope I didn't confuse anyone.

 

[Elixer]

That depends on the quality of the BD-Rs, and how you store them, and how many recovery BD-Rs you are using--if you are really paranoid about data loss.

Speed wise, this would be pretty slow.

 

[SolidSnake42]

Actually, I've been doing DVDs for years and they sometimes don't last at all and honestly, considering the data on the BDRs plus how it could only take 12 minutes to fill one up, it's definitely an upgrade with the BDRs. Also, I would store these in disk cases, like DVD binders and such and then just put them away when I'm done. No sun light or really light of any kind unless someone wants something or I want to watch something.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Are you talking about system backups? I still think it's more cost-effective to image or backup to an HDD. I can't imagine the inconvenience of backing up to BD-RW discs, swapping over and over. You'd have to make sure you weren't creating shiny coasters. I'd try it out, of course, for some applications I think it could work but you need a reliable burner drive and reliable discs. Also, in my experience it took a long time for me to get DVD burning to be reliable. Not sure what others experience in BD. With multi-terabytes of data, I don't know if the backup concept has been fully addressed of late.

 

[SolidSnake42]

No I mean by where I would literally take all the videos and other things off my computer to make more room. I just don't want to lose any of this stuff. So basically, burn it off, delete it from the computer and put the disks in a binder in a safe place.

 

[Elixer]

No I mean by where I would literally take all the videos and other things off my computer to make more room. I just don't want to lose any of this stuff. So basically, burn it off, delete it from the computer and put the disks in a binder in a safe place.

We still don't have bullet proof backup solutions that is reliable and cheap.
If you don't want to lose anything, then your only option is to make multiple copies, and use multiple devices, and maybe even 'cloud storage' as well.

I also wonder about if the BD burner you have now dies, and if another BD burner could read those BD-Rs ok or not...

 

[SolidSnake42]

I just got this one. As in it hasn't been used. I actually still do have some BDRs from a previous time I tried to do BD burning, but the LG drive I had died 3 FUCKING TIMES. I have a Pioneer one and from what I read, it's not a piece of shit lol. I'm not paranoid as shit, but there are a few things I really do not want going away, such as all my anime and MST3K. I do still have some DVDs from about 7 or 8 years ago that should still work, so hopefully this does too. If you're wondering, it's the Pioneer BDR-206DBK.

 

[Dadofamunky]

I know huh? This stuff gets complicated really fast. My Samsung BD combo drive croaked on me last week and I just replaced it. I think, basically, the best thing to do is use hard disks in USB/ESATA enclosures and just store them away in a drawer. I'm patiently waiting for drives to come back down in price so I can buy a 2TB and use it to image my RAID array, which is mostly movies, my iTunes library and such. Can't imagine using optical media to do that Guys around here have 8-10TB which is exponentially worse

 

[SolidSnake42]

So do you think BDRs are fine for now then or no?

 

[kmmatney]

So do you think BDRs are fine for now then or no?

Blue-rays should be fine, but I would recommend getting an external hard drive when prices drop, though.

 

[randomrogue]

If HD prices weren't inflated this would be a no-brainer. Since they're sky high this is ok as temporary solution. Temporary. Over time I found that the disks become unreadable/unrippable.

 

[SolidSnake42]

If HD prices weren't inflated this would be a no-brainer. Since they're sky high this is ok as temporary solution. Temporary. Over time I found that the disks become unreadable/unrippable.

I will admit, CRC errors are a bitch.

 

[Tsavo]

So do you think BDRs are fine for now then or no?

If BD-R discs are anything like recordable DVD's, then skip it as a viable medium for backup.

I've done the whole song ad dance with DVD-R; finding the best media, finding the best drives, finding the best software...the end result out of all this is I've always got at least one disc out of an archive that is no good. I already have discs that I wrote last year that cannot be read, thus rendering the entire process as junk.

I switched to mirroring all my important data to every HDD that I own. This was cost effective before the floods in Thailand doubled the prices of nearly every HDD; it may not be cost effective now but it has proven to be a hugely reliable way of backing up important data.

I consider any data written to a CD/DVD/BR to be vastly and inherently disposable.

 

[corkyg]

HDD pricesx are higher than they have been, but they are still faster and cheaper than opticals for extensive backup.

http://bestprices247.net/products.p...cdfef&src=aw&gclid=CNvn1aOYk60CFasaQgodhmhtmA

And, they will be coming down in price sooner than later.

 

[Charlie98]

What's your data worth? I think my data is worth finding a permanent, reliable solution... or why do it? Ripping data to disks is cumbersome and not very reliable; your data chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.

I went and bought a Seagate external HDD a few years ago, damn what it cost... (yes, I bought it at Best Buy... There! I said it!) because I can't afford to lose my data. ...and I have another layer of backup (3 USB thumb drives I use for smaller files) for my critical 'can't lose at any cost' data.

I have a spool of CD-R's on top of the computer case... it has about 1" of dust on it, that's how often I use them now.

 

[SolidSnake42]

Well like I said, I was gifted this for my birthday, so I have what I have now. When I install this, I have to remove the one 320GB I have in my computer. I could get an external enclosure for it and use that for back up as well (already have a 640GB, 1TB, and 2TB in my computer without it). I just don't personally have a job yet to actually get myself as many hard drives as needed.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Optical storage made sense in the late nineties when a CD was bigger than the average person's hard drive. Today, the smallest hard drive is ten times larger than a BD-R disc...

Keep the files you care about on your 320 GB, and get another HDD as soon as they become affordable again. I'm using an eSATA hard drive dock and three bare 2TB 3.5" 5400rpm drives to back up all my data every month or so. It cost me $250 for 6TB of reasonable safe, convenient backup, and I'm sure the prices will come back to this level eventually.

 

[SolidSnake42]

I will admit, I have never, ever completely backed up my system. I sadly don't have the room but the only thing I can think of that would probably work might be just a 2TB (the 2TB is mostly empty, the 1TB is mostly full and so is the 640GB). But as it is right now, I can't afford to get a 2TB or bigger right now. Just as a side note, I'm not even going to full upgrade my system till April, when Ivy Bridge comes out. Also, I was possibly planning on moving all the current DVDs that I do have burned off in all of my binders (I have almost 5 full 128+ DVD binders, plus another 64 binder that mostly full) to BD-Rs, mainly so it would take up less space and have to carry less, if I need to take them anywhere.