4 ms·
You still do. I can't be the only person who burns install DVDs, finalized, verifies the hash on a few different systems, and then keeps them in a safe place f
by Syonyk 3y ago
You still do. I can't be the only person who burns install DVDs, finalized, verifies the hash on a few different systems, and then keeps them in a safe place for possible future use...
I've got some external USB readers/burners that excel for exactly this sort of thing, and just about anything that will run a modern OS will boot from them.
- JohnFen 3y agoYou're not the only one. I still do this, and use CDs/DVDs for all sorts of other longer-term storage as well. I'm unaware of any other media that works well for those sorts of use cases.
- superb_dev 3y agoWhat is the shelf life of a modern CD/DVD? I might consider using them more
- JohnFen 3y agoAt room temperature, about 25 years -- but there are a lot of variables that can affect this in both directions. https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4/ https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4/
- dml2135 3y agoMaybe for commercial-grade optical media, but last time I burned a lot of consumer media , I found a decent amount of failures even just a few years out. Admittedly this was almost 20 years ago at this point so maybe some things have improved since then but my understanding is that consumer media uses a different, ink-based technology to write data to disk, and that ink can degrade pretty quickly. This is in contrast to commercial optical media in which the data is stamped into the disk in a manner more akin to a vinyl record.
- JohnFen 3y agoAll CD-Rs use a dye layer, yes. The life expectancy the link I provided is talking about is for writeable media, not for read-only media that is stamped. Some forms of writeable disc media don't use dyes and can last for over 100 years. Check out the link. But, to your point, one of the variables that affect longevity is the quality of the manufacturing. If you're buying the least expensive media you can find, then the lifespan is indeed shorter. For my cheapo CD-Rs, I've found that they last 5-10 years. You can also make them last longer by storing them in better conditions (vertically, not laying flat, in an airtight container in the freezer). I tend to go with cheap media, so my personal habit is to burn new copies of my storage discs every 5 years.
- jstarfish 3y agoYeah they sell archival-grade CD-Rs. CD-RWs are way more unstable; would not recommend. One variable I'm recently able to validate (wow, 20 years later!) is write speed. Discs written (for archival) at slower speeds still work. Discs I wrote as fast as possible on my way out the door have mostly failed by now.
- dml2135 3y agoAh interesting, I will check it out. Yea I was definitely buying relatively-cheap media back in the day -- I remember getting large spindles of Verbatim DVD-Rs for about $1/disc.
- kevin_thibedeau 3y agoBD-R and Mdisc DVD-R are not dye based.
- waynesonfire 3y agoThey make archival grade dvds, I just got some, Verbatim DVD-R UltraLife Gold Archival Grade 95355
- oconnore 3y agoI still use BluRays, but the cost/GB has not kept up with everything else.
- waynesonfire 3y agoReally? What alternative is there for archival quality backups with better $/gb?
- NavinF 3y agohttps://diskprices.com/ https://diskprices.com/ Of course you need Reed Solomon across drives (Eg raidz) regardless of media
- userbinator 3y agoTape.
- rowanG077 3y agoOnly the amortized cost is better for tape if you can fill up lots of tapes. Amazing if you are a data center. But if you don't archive a huge amount of data it's not even close to competitive.