Need to decide cd, DVD or memory stick

lonestarfan

Following all my post re saving photos - Two parts are decided re saving my digital photos from our iphone4 & from our digital camers . thnx to u all. 1) I will buy us some external hard drives & 2) I wil set us up Internet storage on flickr & save on there. Then monthly we will copy new stuff that month from the harddrive onto another medium eg cd. Now I need to decide whether to copy onto USB, a cd or a DVD. I've always used cds with a few memory sticks thrown in! Thought I'd decided on DVD but when I went 2 buy them I didn't know what +R or -R was & that threw in the issue of whose DVD player were we using & I'm trying to sort out 3 families & I don't have any strong pull to watch a DVD as I was happy watching a cd. How do I choose? Some months there'll be tons of fotos & other times very few. Thnx a lot for any help.

Lifeforms

Okay, I'd ask what sort of size (in mb overall) that you'd be looking at, but from your post, you're probably never going to be sure.

It's great that you're backing them in two places. If you're only backing them online, consider running two online storage places at the very least. They, the same as us, are prone to glitches, including, but not limited to hardware corrupting, but they usually back up their stuff too, so usually it's ok. But still, back up twice.

DVD's also may or may not work in the machine etc etc, different manufacturers of the different types. Off my head it think it was Sony for + Philips for - (or vice versa, thus one dvd written in on machine may not work in another.

To cover everyone then USB would be the absolute, but you could very easily get an uber cheap external small HDD to pass around. As I don't remember the original thread, if you're posting this out, don't go for a external HDD. Other option is to either buy a 32gb usb stick, or even a cheap 32gb memory card, and buy a reader for it, usually pennies, or sometimes given free with things like micro usb cards.

DVD: +R means it can be added to, so multisession. ie burn one folder of photos, then next week burn another folder of phtos on the one DVD. You MUST NOT FINALISE THE DISC, so usually bog standard windoze burning software is a pain to use with this one.

DVD -R - Once burn only. One folder burnt one time and that's your lot.

DVD RW Multiple use of burn and erase. ie you can burn that 1 folder of photos, delete it next burn, and burn another one over. Commonly used for regular back up of the overwriting of files. ie your Uni thesis as a final copy on it, overwritten every day with the new version being the only one on there.
(+r/-R/RW applies equally to CDs)
As with all DVD/CD, quality etc can dictate how long they last. They are not forever media, which is why you must back up elsewhere when you use them too. But that is the same as most media out there. Sorry if you knew this, but the most frustrating thing can be 1 back up that is corrupted somehow unknown, with the original being deleted etc.

For ease and best probability would be to use DVD -R on all drives, and hope. Maybe do a test run? Or alternatively look at the blurbs on each of the drives to find out recommended discs.

lonestarfan

quote from lifeforms above:- "said As I don't remember the original thread, if you're posting this out, don't go for a external HDD".


Would you mind explaining that sentence above as following my post about recommendations for a hard drive, - perhaps you meant if I am sending it by post to relatives - which I'm not but thanks if that's what you meant - I've decided to buy a Samsung 1Tb S2 portable hard drive if I can't get the samsung Story book at a good price.
Thnx.

andy2004

nice drive lonestarfan, remember when sending to family members to pack the harddrive in plenty of bubblewrap and make sure all cables are included.
cost of delivery due to weight should be around £7, i just paid that out to send back my 1.5tb WD + bubblewrap + weigh of box, as the 2.5in drives are lighter i would expect a lower delivery charge, also note, if you tell them its worth £85 you cant use recorded delivery as they only goes to £49. I had to use special delivery due to drive being £79.

note 2. 2.5in drives dont seem to last as long as 3.5in drives. never had a 2.5in samsung so cant say. but i have had a couple of fujitsu 2.5in drives didnt last very long but they where used in a portable video player. 40gb's and lasted only 6months.

lonestarfan

andy2004 wrote: »

nice drive lonestarfan, remember when sending to family members to pack the harddrive in plenty of bubblewrap and make sure all cables are included.
cost of delivery due to weight should be around £7, i just paid that out to send back my 1.5tb WD + bubblewrap + weigh of box, as the 2.5in drives are lighter i would expect a lower delivery charge, also note, if you tell them its worth £85 you cant use recorded delivery as they only goes to £49. I had to use special delivery due to drive being £79.

note 2. 2.5in drives dont seem to last as long as 3.5in drives. never had a 2.5in samsung so cant say. but i have had a couple of fujitsu 2.5in drives didnt last very long but they where used in a portable video player. 40gb's and lasted only 6months.

Thanks andy. I'm going to take it over to them myself but thanks for the advice. My first choice hard drive would be a samsung storybook but I can't seem to find it at £85 as per the other posts so I may plump for the S2 but am concerned now as I don't want to buy something that I know will last less time cos its portable.

lonestarfan

I've bought Verbatim DVD+R as they were on special offer so will give them a try. The earlier post gives me the impresssion that I have to burn them rather than click and drag - is that right? Thats a bit of a pain if so but I'll give it a go.
Secondly I thought I would buy some memory sticks today, just as an other alternative if we are in a hurry - Grandma often doesn't have the patience to burn discs! - I found a duracell 32g on Amazon at £16.90 but having read the feedback on it whilst everyone said they were good they made a very good point that as they are so plump you cannot fit another usb right next to it - my pc is built with 2 usb next to eachother so I need to go for a slim memory stick. Having read feedback people are saying don't buy sandisk, don't buy this or that make cos they take ages to save or go corrupt so I'm back to needing recommendations from you guys for 32g usb 2.0 memory sticks which are a good price will not take forever to copy to or don't last long or corrupt as many have given feedback on Amazon about this happening! For those of you helping me with the other posts all linked to this thank you (hard drives recommendations , extra dell memory etc) and please persevere with me as this task as you know has been on the list for nearly 10 years I think and I've made massive progress this week on my leave! Just need to finally buy the external hard drives for Grandma and me, the usb's and then I think I'm all set to spend my hours copying saving and uploading as I've set up the flickr accounts and that is fab uploading from my iphone! Grandma is going to love that as its so quick and easy!!

Lifeforms

Sorry yes, I did mean if you were physically postiing them. it doesn't matter how often you or anyone else say they've posted fine. It is detrimental over time and it only takes one mess up for it to be a nice rattly box only good to prop up something. It's also daft to be posting something that costs that much on the hope it will get there fine.

Drag and drop or Burning is the same thing. it's a case of the finalising that makes a difference. If you want to carry on the session (ie burn more folders to it after the first burn) you mustn't finalise the disk. That closes it off completely. You want to end the session. see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Close-or-finalize-a-CD-or-DVD (vista, xp, or windows 7, doesn't matter, it's just a quick explanation)

Always remember with any media like that to eject it using the hardware function thing! (bottom right, in your taskbar)

Regarding memory sticks, or cards. They break. It is not a forever storage solution, nothing is. The question is, does it break first couple of times you use them, or after 200 and you're reliant on what's on there because you get so used to it working, you forget to keep an original copy.

Regarding speed of copying. it's dependent on how many files it copies, and whether it's (in the simplest terms) usb 1, 2, or 3. 3 being fastest, 1 being slowest. MOST are now atleast usb 2. If you copy one file it tends to take less time than if you copy the equivalent in multiple files. ie 1 gb file versus 1024 1mb files. (maths may be wrong, one of those days!)

No one will be able to say this brand of this model type will always work. As far as I'm concerned, they all die eventually, through corruption, disk issues, breakage ie dropping, cracking the case etc. Stick with a brand name. (including the memory inside). Don't just go for one that is a no-name memory in a branded stick. At the very least, if it's a manufacturing fault it'll be replaced life for like (not their responsibility for files though)

Fatness is an issue with these, but you could bypass that just by getting a very short 10/20cm usb extension lead.

lonestarfan

Am I doing the right thing buying hard drives, memory sticks, dvd's and uploading to internet storage as well as slaving over burning photos and uploading photos from last 10 years? The theme seems to be that nothing is permanent anyway - cd's deteriorate over time, etc. It's a lot of expense and hours of work for not a permanent solution - what's the alternative?

andy2004

most usb sticks including those with Sansa have samsung flash chips the chips soldered onto the pcb, which seem to be the best or so i have read over the years.
question? why is everything i post got samsung in the name?
anyway http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/memory-flash/ i have a novatech 16gb for £9.98, the 32gb version is 19.98
note: a usb3 is backwards compatible with usb2 and usb 1.1, usb3 is the fastest as someone else has mentioned, so when a usb3 is connected to usb2 it will simply slow down to the speed of usb2.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/memory-flash/usbmemorystick/nov-ms232g.html i have the 16gb version of this, which is reasonably quick, i put some movies on mine for my sister to watch which i downloaded.

As for the 2.5in harddrive issues i mentioned earlier, i have no idea why 2.5in drive don't seem to last as long as their 3.5in but its could be simply because they are used as portable devices, and therefore are likely to be dropped.
as for 3.5in internal which i mentioned in my other posts, i converted mine into externals by buying an enclosures, so they are now portable, but i must remember to take a power lead with me which isn't really a problem as the ones that come with the novatech enclosure are actually just a plug and wire. whereas the 2.5in is powered by the usb lead.
the differences between 2.5in and 3.5in portables summed up:

1. 3.5in heavier to carry than 2.5in
2. 3.5in require a power supply or the power adapter for the enclosure, 2.5in powered by usb
3. 3.5in seem to last longer than 2.5in drives because more are used for being portable than 3.5in

When would i use a 2.5in portable over a 3.5in portable?

When i would need to carry the 2.5in portable on me every day example to college "if i was going to college", or needed to transfer data on a daily basis and was using the bus.
3.5in portable, when data on the 3.5in was to be example taken once a month to someone elses house and a: left there until it needed to be updated /added to, or b: and the data to be copied from the portable to another device and then overwritten or added to. then taken back to mine, where it would be left until the new data was needed on the other persons computer.
of course. depends on the amount of data to be copied.
example 2. you buy an external device for someone and take it to them, and show them how to connect it and power it up, 2 leads, 1 power and 1 data, and then its left there, when you update it you use a usb flash memory stick 32gb/16gb whatever to add files to the 3.5in drive. and the 3.5in / 2.5in doesn't actually move. portable but not being used as portable, hence longer life. even with the 2.5in.
the 3 2tb drives i have are all portable but they dont / havent been moved since i had them, well apart from the 2 feet due to the data cable being short.
2tb drives have been reduced by £10, so less than £98 to make/have them portable.

little update, just seen the added cd / dvd dilemma.

after burning a cd/dvd the data on the cd/dvd on a blank dvd that you burned will last upto 50years i read somewhere, or was that for burned manufactured dvds' aka dvd movies you buy.
http://ciaranm.hubpages.com/hub/How-long-does-a-recordable-CD-or-DVD-last read this and its confusing.

just to make it more confusing, i've been burning cd's and dvd's for the past 18years, ever since i had my first pc, i've still got my first cd ever burned.
i still have the music cd's i burned over 12years ago and they still play perfectly.

lonestarfan

Some really good info there - particularly the considerations about moving them around/what being used for. My need is for static so if I can't get the story book I'll get the S2 then. I feel a bit happier about the longevity of cds etc now after your post so it is worth doing from my point of view. Thnx a lot.

lonestarfan

Lifeforms - thanks - lots of good info there. Good point also re using the icon that tells u its safe to remove hardware - I do tell them but will be firmer now as the nephew wil be in charge of monthly back up!