DVD-R or CD-R

When it comes to photographs, they are irreplaceable.

I want at least two copies for my archives.

Save them to DVD and CD.

For protection from fire or natural disaster,
one copy should be kept off premises in a safe-deposit box or at a friend/relatives home.

In addition, I have turned my best photos into DVD slide shows. A copy of the photos in the slide show, are also included on that DVD.

...
..
.

brand. Some photography stores sell archival CDs which contain gold, and gold is known to be the best formulation. Taiyo Yuden CDs, if made in Japan, are at the top of the tested heap.

I have not seen any test data on the longevity of DVDs.

Therefore, I have to say that high quality CDs are the best choice. After that, high quality DVDs are probably next because DVD construction is more robust.

Either type must be properly stored. Low priced disks of either type should not be used for long term storage.

Peter Krogh (http://www.thedambook.com/) suggests that one of the better way to manage image archival is on external hard disks - in addition to CD/DVD backup.

Provides very usefull advice in his book "The DAM Book" (digital asset management).

Steve

i save on my harddrive on a cd and i save at yahoo photo sight i hopefully have it covered

I prefer to save to my ZIP disks. I have photos saved that are now approximately 8 years old, and have never had a problem.

Before I set up my new PC I made the mistake of backing up using cheap DVD-Rs (properly verified backups etc.)

Don't know what went wrong but about 10% were corrupted. Luckily I still had the originals, but it scared me enough to throw away the remaining blank DVD-Rs. I went out & got some brand name discs straight away, and also I set up a Netgear network storage thing.

Fortunately no problems since so perhaps just a bad batch... but scary. Imagine losing a random 10% (or more) of your treasured images.

I had a years worth of digital photos stored on a Maxtor external hard drive. One day when I went to ac ess this drive, it started clicking, and I could not access the drive. I contacted Maxtor, while although sympathetic, could do nothing for me other than to suggest I find a company who can help me. Of course I would have pay to have them recover the data on the drive. Long story short, it cost no less that $500.00 to recover the data. The data is still setting on this hard drive.

May I suggest the following, as this is now my new routine:

I. download digital pictures to an external/internal hard drive for temporary storage.

2. At the end of each month transfer this data over to a CD-RW, or even a DVD-RW depending on how much data.

3. Finally, on an annual basis, I transfer all the CD/DVD data over to a Archival CD or DVD R or RW.

I have an internal Hard Drive just for storage, along with an External for the long term storage. If you properly store the Hard Drive I have found very little risk. With the prices of 40 to 80 gig hard drives these days it is cheaper and easier to store and access.

I use BOTH an external hard drive (to back up ALL my data, not just photos) and an online facility (www.flickr.com). Hard to say what the test of time will reveal, but this combination seems to make the most sense.

The problem with many online photo storage services is that they are not truly "free", requiring you to buy prints, or coffe mugs / tee-shirts with your pix on them as a means ofpaying for storage. Some will evendelet your pix if you haven't looged onto their site in a long time.

I don't think Flickr.com does this, but it pays to read the fine print. The advantage here is you can access your pix from anywhere you have an internet connection. As an example, there was a case in New Orleans when Katrina wiped out all this family had, including all family photos.

Luckily they had stored their pix on a site like Flickr.com and were able to recover them. I would do this (you get lots of free storage), but makesure to read the fine print and find out if you are expected to buy merchandise from them.

Also make sure to log into your account once every so often to make sure it stays active. And do keep an external drive handy (Western Digital sells an 80 gig "Passport" drive that will store plenty of pix). Alternatively use your iPod as a storage device.

That way you　can both store ａｎｄ　ｖｉｅｗ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｐｉｘ．　ＣＤｓ　／ＤＶＤｓ　ａｒｅ　ｓｕｂｊｅｃｔ　ｔｏ　ｔｏｏ　ｍｕｃｈ　ｗｅａｒ　ａｎｄ　ｔｅａｒ，　ｉｎ　ｍｙ　ｈｕｍｂｌｅ　ｏｐｉｎｉｏｎ．　Ｏｆ　ｃｏｕｒｓｅ，　ｔｈｅｙ　ａｒｅ　ｃｈｅａｐｅｒ　ｔｈａｎ　ｔｈｅｉＰｏｄ　ｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　Ｐａｓｓｐｏｒｔ　ｄｒｉｖｅ．　Ｈｏｐｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｈｅｌｐｓ

I use a multi pronged defence against data loss; all data not just images. My data includes business and personal data and finance info as well as thousands of still images and hours of digital video.

First off, I have read in a couple places that burnable DVD's are superior to CD's. Don't know for sure but that's what I've read; something about DVD's being the newer technology. So I burn Gold CD's then burn a DVD copy of those in groups of 4 to 6 CD's per DVD. The CD's are stored in a hidden, fire rated safe on premises with the DVD's in the bank safe deposit box.

I also use an older computer in my home network of three as a backup storage device for all data files. That computer has two hard drives on separate controllers that are used solely for data and images. Each drive is a copy of the other, so there's 2 copies of each file. This will soon have to be expanded by adding 2 more drives for more space. I use a program called Second Copy to do automatic copies of the files on the workstation computers. I like it because it makes actual copies of the files rather than process them into some archival format. They are directly readable by another computer.

As for the removable media I use the Gold CD's and DVD's from Delkin (delkin.com)as they are supposed to offer greater longevity over the normal off the discount shelf CD's.

I will never use ReWritable disks again. I used to and have found data loss on some of the older ones. I have also read that is not uncommon due to the process involved in the RW.

Your best strategy for long-term storage will be to use one of the non-rewritable discs because their write-surface materials are more stable (so far) than the re-writable technologies; with the advent of medical and archival("300-year" standard, same as acid-free paper used in publishing)grade discs (usually gold foil)at reasonable prices one should go that route. (they're easy to find on the web with keyword searches like "archival cd-rom" or "gold archival disc"). I think the only significant difference between DVD and CD-rom will be how much fits on a disc and what file types they can hold. The base materials of even the non-archival grade discs are pretty stable and there's no reason to believe they wouldn't last MILLENNIA in proper storage conditions.

Magnetic drives, on the other hand, are extremely complex mechanisms with multiple moving parts spinning at high speeds, writing onto chemically and magnetically dynamic surfaces. In other words, they're guaranteed to wear out. The longest warranty on any current drives is 5 years, to give you a realistic idea of how long you've got to transfer your precious pictures to a more stable platter.

If you think writing your pictures to a disk is a hassle, remember what a hassle it was in the past to arrange your photographs in albums? Information is always labor intensive somehow, but they're your memories--you get to keep them if you put in the work!

External harddrive via USB2.0 connector...
1. You can put the data in two locations (home, office) so if one place burns you still have the data elsewhere.
2. USB connector is less subject to the ever-changing interface card (ST506, SCSI, IDE, EIDE) not fitting into your new PC with its ever-changing (ISA, MCA, PCI) buss layout!
3. Magnetics (tape, disk) are more permanent than the optical technology

...and plug in the USB harddrive and turn it on ONLY WHEN you need to read/write data onto it...do not fight the Laws of Chance (MTBF statistics)
1. Mechanical things wear out if perpetually turned on
2. Electronic things are less prone to 'wear' but the more you use them you increase the odds of failure