What happened to my CD-RW ?

KingL

savedmoney wrote: »

An alternative is to store the data on a small SD Card - Available on eBay for a few pounds. But for now I will stick with the CD, had the data been more personal (irreplaceable) I would have gone with the SD Card option.

Where is the rest of your data? USB drives are also a quid or two and external magnetic drives are pretty cheap these days, too. Hopefully you have backups of your stuff that is important. Why not just stick an extra gig or two of college stuff along with the rest of your magnetic backups ?

Lil306

If you have no luck, you may find some luck with Roadkill Unstoppable Copier. I've had some success with it with some crazily damaged CDs, but be warned. It takes a while if the CD is badly damaged as it manually does each and every track / sector, one at a time.

savedmoney

KingL wrote: »

Hopefully you have backups of your stuff that is important. Why not just stick an extra gig or two of college stuff along with the rest of your magnetic backups ?

Thanks for the input KingL.
Yes I do back up by data.
I wouldn't want to keep my uni stuff with the rest of my data for the same reason why I wouldn't want to keep my bookshelves stocked with all my old lecture notes.

The general point of the thread is in regards to durability of CDs for archiving data.

Stompa

KillerWatt wrote: »

If you are talking about dye manufacturers such as Taiyo Yuden, then yes they do last the distance

Yes, that was what I meant, though TY do different grades (Premium, Archival, etc..). For example:

http://jvc-media.eu/dvd/dvd_plus_r/

Though oddly the description of archival grade seems to be about scratch resistance etc., with no mention of longevity as such.

KillerWatt wrote: »

but the quality is reflected in the cost..

There difference appears to be comparatively small though.

esuhl

savedmoney wrote: »

An alternative is to store the data on a small SD Card...

I think CD-Rs (not CD-RWs) are considered safer than SD cards or USB pen drives, but why not hedge your bets and keep backups on both SD card and CD?!

My system is to have a separate partion for personal files, which I backup to 2 or 3 other hard drives (using Acronis True Image). A bit OTT, maybe, but it works for me!

Anyway, glad to hear you got your files back :T

savedmoney

esuhl wrote: »

I think CD-Rs (not CD-RWs) are considered safer than SD cards or USB pen drives

Hi esuhl

I thought that SD Cards would be quite safe for long term storage?

What are the problems with them?

Stompa

savedmoney wrote: »

Hi esuhl

I thought that SD Cards would be quite safe for long term storage?

What are the problems with them?

FWIW there's some discussion here:

http://birdhouse.org/blog/2009/03/27/longevity-of-solid-state-memory-cards/