DVD media compatibility/quality

[Ray]

As a result of a recent fiasco with an external hard drive, I decided to clear an internal 200GB HD by recording the RAW and Tiffs therein to a few blank DVDs I have lying around.

Almost a couple of years ago, I bought a 25 disk spindle of a very cheap (at the time) unknown brand of 4x DVD-R, in a store called 'Crazy Clarks', which name perhaps doesn't inspire much confidence regards quality.

I burned a couple of discs at the time, to try them out. They seemed okay, so I bought another spindle, then forgot about them because other more recognisable and confidence-inspiring brands soon became available at a similar price, if not quite as cheap.

Not being one who likes any form of waste, I decided yesterday to use up these blanks even though they are only 4x.

I was in for a surprise. My Pioneer DVR-109 burner really likes these discs. They are a true 4x. What's more, the verification speed progresses from 5x to 10x with no  dips. I tested the transfer rate using Nero 7. It fluctuated between 3.9x and 4.2x. The average transfer rate was 4.1x.

I've never seen this level of consistency before. I'm used to 16x discs burning at 8x or 12x at best. 8x discs burning at 4x or 6x, and 4x burning at 2x. Verification speeds seem to vary even more greatly, sometimes dropping into the kilobytes/second rate.

Even though these discs are rated at only 4x, the total burning time plus verification time seems no greater than the faster 16x discs.

The brand is XLogic; manufacturer's code is DKMZ01; capacity is 4.38MB; burn time is 14.38 min and verification time much less.

[Hendrik]

Quality is not determined by its write-speed, but its longevity. Many low-speed rated DVD’s can be burned at much higher speeds.

I lost my confidence when I tried to retrieve burned data on DVD’s and CD’s from MAM-E  (gold) and  Kodak Gold. Many disks contained errors and many were unrecoverable. They were stored for a few years in the dark in their original cases at roomtemperature.

Today, I only trust my valuable data (photo archive etc) to HDs. I have one 300GB intern and two identical 300 GB HD external. This way I have everything stored three times. I’m thinking to get a fourth HD for storage outside my home.

[Ray]

Quality is not determined by its write-speed, but its longevity. Many low-speed rated DVD’s can be burned at much higher speeds.

I lost my confidence when I tried to retrieve burned data on DVD’s and CD’s from MAM-E  (gold) and  Kodak Gold. Many disks contained errors and many were unrecoverable. They were stored for a few years in the dark in their original cases at roomtemperature.

Today, I only trust my valuable data (photo archive etc) to HDs. I have one 300GB intern and two identical 300 GB HD external. This way I have everything stored three times. I’m thinking to get a fourth HD for storage outside my home.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=97283\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Just goes to show how personal experience can affect one's decisions. I've just lost 140GB of data in one hit, from a hard drive, and no data whatsoever from either premium quality Kodak Gold or el cheapo no brand CDs or DVDs in the 10years or so I've been burning them. However, I always check the disks immediately after burning. I open them in PS (file browser, or Bridge), make sure the thumbnails all appear and open a couple to be sure; perhaps one from the middle and one from the end.

It's my suspicion that a lot of discs that appear to have errors, contained such errors from the day they were burned and that has nothing to do with disc longevity.

[Hendrik]

...
It's my suspicion that a lot of discs that appear to have errors, contained such errors from the day they were burned and that has nothing to do with disc longevity.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

After each burn I tested each disk by verification, checking for write errors with a tool from Nero and opening several files with Irfanview, just as you also did. Since I wanted to use it as a back-up medium, I took first class brands. MAM-E (Mitsui) en Kodak are considered top of the line.

In the end, I didn't use it much, because I had diffuculties keeping track on all my data and it was much cheaper and faster to use several HDs.

I don't trust HD, therefore I always keep me data on three differend drives. I experienced a HD failure a few weeks ago and within a day I had a new drive and all data restored. It's my believe that you always have to store data on more than one place.

btw, I don't use solutions by LaCie or others. I buy internal drives from Maxtor or WD and place them in an external aSATAII case (NexStar3 from [a href=\"http://www.vantecusa.com/)]http://www.vantecusa.com/)[/url], they look great.

[giles]

Just goes to show how personal experience can affect one's decisions.

Yes.  For example, back in the day when DDS tapes held a worthwhile amount of data, I lost (in professional IT environments) more *drives* to failure than I did tapes.  But in most of those environments we had legal and organisational rules about data storage: it had to be recoverable within a set period (e.g. seven years) but once that period had passed, we wanted to be rid of it to avoid the costs of searching or copying it for legal proceedings.  IT is a very funny business.

For backups of my photographs to optical media, I try to make multiple backups to different brands of media.  I need to set up a schedule to test some of the older ones to find out how they're holding up, but I have a small enough set of "good stuff" (:sigh:) that I can keep it all online on multiple machines *and* backed up to DVD.

Thinking about archiving reminds me of the IT security saying: "I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?"

How much you fret about this depends what your photographs are worth.  The ones I've worked on and like I would not want to lose.  While I wouldn't like to lose the rejects either (there might be something in there of value, or some lessons to learn) if I did it would not be tragic.  I also don't care if even my good ones get stolen: I've never sold anything, would have to pay $$$ for better equipment insurance if I planned to, and so I worry about natural accidents but not someone stealing the media I have stored offsite.  (If I worried about theft I'd use encryption.)

Giles