Archive Grade CD / DVDs

http://www.blankmedia.ca/prodsubcats.asp?id=143 here these are the best disc on the market rigth now... but these guys dont have stock rigth now.. maybe you can find somewhere esle... these are not cheap..
http://www.blankmedia.ca/prodsubcats.asp?id=62 these are good to, just burn them at a slow speed and store them good put them in CDS cases and paper one some thing like these http://www.blankmedia.ca/proddetail3.asp?id=58 and leave them in a dark and dry place at around 10 c and you will be good to go

Archive grade will last longer than bargain basement purchased CD's and DVD's.

You'll get longer lasting archival storage on DVD than CD to be certain.

The new double side DVD's apparently offer superior archival properties.

It's really a dogs breakfast of opinions on what is the best format to use.

Personally I buy large hard drives when they're on sale..and just load them full of photo's...(I shot raw format so it doesn't take long to fill up a drive)...and just store them with a contact sheet. At least I know the drives will last longer.

I have the same shots backed up on DVD's as well.

It's best to back up wanted material in 2 foramts just in case.

What's a contact sheet?

Good media is one factor, but something else you should consider is the quality of your DVD burner. Plextor makes the best burners in my opinion.

Good media is one factor, but something else you should consider is the quality of your DVD burner. Plextor makes the best burners in my opinion.

Click to expand...

I thought LG and Pioneer were the best.

Keebler Elf said:

What's a contact sheet?

Click to expand...

It is a sheet with multiple photos/images on it that is used for reference or quick viewing. I am not sure if MarkII is suggesting physical contact sheets or electronic ones. I am guessing physical (probably a binder) one so you can look at what is on the drive without firing it up.

From when I was involved in the 'new media / multimedia' industry back in the late/mid-90s I started hearing stories about 'crumbling' CDs and the optical layer degrading. Haven't looked into it much recently but I did a google and these articles/links are probably of interest.

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/faqs/optical.html
http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/2005/02/nist_tackles_optical_media_lon.html

I like MrPhilip's advice as it seems to make sense and also MarkII. Funnily enough the company I work for actually archives client data in a similar manner. We use both hard drive (removed) and CDs as complimentary backup media.

Edifice said:

I thought LG and Pioneer were the best.

Click to expand...

Not even close. Only (premium) Plextor burners have the necessary accuracy to make 1:1 reproductions of the minute disc imperfections used by SecuROM copy protection schemes.

albertp said:

Not even close. Only (premium) Plextor burners have the necessary accuracy to make 1:1 reproductions of the minute disc imperfections used by SecuROM copy protection schemes.

Click to expand...

I always have to laugh to myself when people cite brand names which use other companies to manufacture their products. Plextor have some of their own drives, but now seem to mostly sell Teac/BenQ and Philips-BenQ drives.

Go to www.videohelp.com and click on "DVD Writers", noting the "OEM" and "Chipset" manufacturers cited underneath each model number.

used to be a big fan of Plextor and Yamaha during the CD-R days, for DVD+/-R I like Pioneer the best.