What kind of storage on CD or DVD?

[lynbrown]

I have read a lot of scare stories about losing pictures and documents if your hard drive fails. How can i store my stuff elsewhere - eg on a CD or DVD? I did try Bt Broadband digital vault but could not give the appropriate answers to the questions. Do i just go into a shop and ask for a storage CD?

[zinnie]

Hi 'lynbrown' ......I guess if you are going to burn to a disc them a CD will be easier as will will already have the software for that ...it doesn't need any special CD ...any CD that is recordable. As an alternative there are 'memory sticks' ..they are more expensive than SD's and are thought not the best for permenant storage for ever..but are alot easier to use,

[ACtheTROLL]

only two viable options (if the pikkies are important use both methods (belt + braces))
cd/dvd ......
external usb hard disc

[fo3nix]

1) Make sure you buy DVD�R's or CD-R's. Not the RW (ReWriteable) kind.

2) Most brands are ok. Verbatim are good common ones.

Ideally use something like Nero to burn the CDs, but windows' own burning software will suffice.

Just get backing up. And do it regularly!

Better though, is to buy an external hard drive. You can then use a free app like SyncBack to backup your documents automatically every day or week.

Just make sure it's regular. And once done, periodically check your backups just by opening your photos or whatever, just to make sure they're actually working.

[vehelpfulguy]

>Better though, is to buy an external hard drive.

I would not say this is BETTER than a CD or DVD, just an alternative.

An external hard drive still has moving parts that can fail, or it can be stolen during a burglery, or your house could be flooded and the hard drive ruined.

For home users the best backup is to CD or DVD.

A CD can hold about 600Mb of data, a DVD over 4Gb (that is 4,000Mb) of data.

To do this you need:

A writeable CD or DVD drive in your computer. Most modern computers come with one.

Some software to write the CD (Nero for example). Many PCs come with a product like this pre-installed.

A blank CD or DVD. As has been said, dont buy RW (rewriteable) as the data can be deleted off a RW. Buy a CD R or DVD R

[fo3nix]

I agree with the mechanical failure issues.

However, I'd still recommend a hard drive over a set of CD-Rs.

Backups are only good if they're recent, and people only make backups if they're easy to do. Backing up to a hard drive is easier (connect drive, open app, click 'sync') than backing up to CD-Rs, which required burning and ejecting a few CDs.

However, I'd also back up your most important stuff to CD-Rs too, as a failsafe. Ideally store it offsite, like ata a bank or another member of the family's house.

[rojash]

I agree with fo3nix. It doesn't matter how reliable your backup medium is if you don't do backups because it's a hassle.

I backup regularly and frequently to external hard drives and it takes about as long to backup my entire system as it would to write just a few DVDs. What's more, once the backup is started it can be left to run unattended.

[webdude]

Yep - these days external hard drives for simplicity and ease of use.