[Elecraft] Re: [QRP-L] Re: [WriteLog] Hard Drive Failure, THANKS

[Brian Mury]

Hi Earl,

I have a DVD-/+RW drive in the new computer I just built. Since you seem
to know something about the topic - am I better off with DVD-RW or
DVD+RW?

On Thu, 2004-07-08 at 18:19, Earl W Cunningham wrote:
> Stuart, K5KVH wrote:
> 
> "A professional media group of which I am a member has numerous reports
> of inability of cross play of CD's from one drive to another, and DVD's."
> ----------
> This is because there are two (actually four if you consider re-writeable
> CDs) types of CD you can copy data (or a CD) to -- CD-Rs and CD+Rs. 
> Newer drives will read either type (usually), but older drives will read
> only the CD-Rs.  Only a few (if any) CD drives will read a CD-RW or a
> CD+RW (re-writeable CDs) unless the drive also has write capability.  No
> DVD can be read by a CD drive, however CDs can be read on a DVD drive.
> 
> Ditto all of that for DVD-/+R and DVD-/+RW discs.
> ==========
> 
> "Neither is considered an archival format among the libraries, archives,
> and media types.   They are attractive, but there have been many
> documented cases of shedding of reflective coatings, and humidity damage
> to CD type media.  Keep any media cool and dry."
> ----------
> The aluminized coating on CDs oxidizes over a period of time and will
> develop pinholes, making the data irretrieveable.  In a controlled
> environment, it has been shown that the pinholes are well-developed in
> about twenty years.
> 
> There are two answers to this:
> 
> 1)  Store the CDs in a 100% nitrogen atmosphere (no oxidation).
> 
> 2)  Some CD manufacturers are now coating their blank CDs  with a clear
> lacquer to keep the oxygen out.
> ==========
> 
> "The real problem with archiving is; will the player for your media still
> be working and available to interface with computers 20 years or even 5
> years hence?"
> ----------
> I don't really consider that a problem.  Most of the archiving I've done
> is the one all computer users should do -- backing up their hard drive. 
> When hard disks were small, I used 360K 5-1/4" floppies (the media of the
> time) to back up my hard drive.  As hard disks got bigger, I went to
> 1.44M 3-/12" floppies.
> 
> I now use my DVD read/write drive to backup my hard drive.  One DVD will
> hold about 4.7G of data, so I don't need a lot of DVDs to do the job (I
> use re-writeable DVDs, BTW).
> 
> When whatever replaces DVDs comes about, I'll go to that technology.
> 
> Whoever started this thread about his hard drive failure should seriously
> consider buying a DVD read/write drive to use to back up his hard drive
> periodically.  I recommend this not only to him, but to everybody reading
> this.
> 
> 73, de Earl, K6SE
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-- 
73, Brian
VE7NGR