BluRay storage

[Clearair]

Hi
I feel the need to archive all my Raw files on something other than a HD. Not because I think they will fail but because I think some Operating System or Application will corrupt them.
Does anyone have first hand experience with the portable BluRay writers.
Most seem USB2 plus second USB to provide power.

I want to spread my archives over different options and DVD is not practicle.
Apple may not support BLURAY but to me the cloud has no substance.

Thanks

[Alan Goldhammer]

what is the total size the you want to archive?  Current Blu Ray dual layer blu ray disks can store 50GB of data though there is ongoing development to increase this by an order of magnitude.  I don't know whether USB 3 blu ray reader/writer drives are available and if you have to rely on a USB 2 drive it's not going to be particularly fast.  I also don't understand you comment about an OS or application corrupting a Raw file, almost any decent backup software will check to insure that files are transferred with integrity.  Simply moving things to a Blu Ray disk will not automatically assure integrity.  I've burned enough disks with errors of the years to realize this.  Remember also that you are always are going to require some application to read your Raw files if you are considering really long term archiving.

I have all files backed up on a local external hard drive and on the cloud with Amazon Simple Storage.  I've periodically checked both back ups and never run across a file integrity problem.  One final comment about Blu Ray storage, you'll still have to periodically burn more Blu Rays and need to configure a date stamp process so you are not re-burning already saved files.

[Clearair]

Hi
My experience differs.
Please see Aperture forum Disaster.
I used Apples vault and time machine as back up solution.
Both now have corrupted files, no warning while backing up.
Apples library export only twice showed export with errors out of 30 or more exports.
The broadband speeds where I live are medieval.
I will be storing about two tbs of data.
Regards

[michael]

Blu-ray disks are not archival. They will deteriorate I've time.  All media will.

The best back up strategy is multiple hard drives stored in more than one location. Run the drives every few months and rotate them. When new drive technology, interface technology and operating systems come along, switch your back ups to the latest.

1 Terrabyte external drives now cost under $65 each.

Michael

[Clearair]

Hi Michael
I agree with all you have said.

Horses for courses means my options in the UK are more expensive, my preferred external HD, G-TECH, is £148.80 for a 2TB. I think this works out at twice the price you may be able to benefit from being in a larger market place?
Currently can't find a 1TB from the suppliers.
I use these as they have good support and are fussy over the drives installed (Hitachi).
I also like to have esata, usb2/3, firewire or that other one. ESATA is useful for testing as the software thinks it is an internal drive.
BluRays are a few pence to £6 a disk depending what you buy. I will try Panasonic at £1.70. That works out to £136.00 for 2TB which of course I don't need.
I feel the need for a different second tier solution, getting away from the maintenance of HD's as I am aware they need to be re freshed if inactive.
I have some 20 years ancient KodaK gold CDs, they still playback the original files.
My limited research indicates three things in optical drive tech with regard to archival performance.
1 Materials used in the recording layers.
2 The writer itself.
3 Storage.

Single layer still seems more robust, HTL disks are better than LTH and there is a new kid on the block. M something or other which is using a more mineral type of recording layer.

I plan on buying an LGBE14NU40.
It is rated to burn the new type of disks which are only DVDs at this time, It is not a flimsy portable device and I think will burn more accurately and reliably as storage is my aim not portability. Internal devices are an option later if this all works out.

So HDs will be my routine backup solution and BR my longer term storage with caution. This will be vastly more robust than my backup regime at this time.
 

[vjbelle]

I would think that your BluRay solution represents about 1/2 of 1% of the backup methods used.  I have never, in over 20 years, had a good experience with any type of DVD or similar backup method.  All have failed to one extent or another.  Michael's post makes the most sense and is what I use.  I don't use any of Apple's auto methods or anything similar on the PC side.  I simply manually use either Finder (Apple side) or Disk explorer (PC side) and drag and drop. I use three different backup locations of which one is my NAS and feel very secure with this approach. 

Victor

[dwswager]

Hi
I feel the need to archive all my Raw files on something other than a HD. Not because I think they will fail but because I think some Operating System or Application will corrupt them.
Does anyone have first hand experience with the portable BluRay writers.
Most seem USB2 plus second USB to provide power.

I want to spread my archives over different options and DVD is not practicle.
Apple may not support BLURAY but to me the cloud has no substance.

Thanks

Bottom Line is there is not a single option for digital storage that is totally foolproof and inexpensive.

As an amateur, Unlike most people, I edit my Original Files down.  I don't keep everything.  Depends on what I shot and for what reason.  If I shoot sports and end up with 1000 originals, I probably will do 1st edit down to maybe 200 of which I might actually use 30-70.  I only keep 200 originals, not all 1000 because I know I'm not going to ever do anything with them.

Blu-ray issue is that not only are the discs fragile, but also the density of the data on the discs is so high, it is almost inevitable to have issues.  HD-DVD would have been much better at 25GB and half the data density...Damn Disney!  Single Layer Kodak Gold Archival/Preservation DVDs are a better option other than the limited storage of only 4.7GB per single layer disc.

Michael's suggestion of Hard Drive Storage is also a reasonable option.  But assume that hard drives will deteriorate in 5-7 years, especially if left sitting.  You should have a program to update to new media with error checking as part of the transfer on a regular basis.

My desktop has 1TB drives in a RAID 1 (mirror) Array.  I also have a 9TB Windows Home Server that has 3 3TB Enterprise level drives.  I use Stablebit Drivepool.  Instead of a RAID 5 array for example where the data is written over multiple drives with parity data and the system can loose a drive and the array be rebuilt, DrivePool writes the data intact to 2 different drives so failure of a drive means the data on that drive exists whole, in normal readable format, on another drive. 

Recommendation:  Make a copy onto a large hard drive.  Store offsite.  How often you refresh the copy is a choice you need to make.  Also how often you back up new material to the offsite copy. 

In my setup I have one copy on a mirror on the desktop and one copy in the Server DrivePool.  That is actually 4 copies on 4 different drives in to different locations in my house.  When I transfer off the RAID 1 array desktop, I then put on external hard drive so I have 3 copies:  2 in the server in my house and 1 offsite on a Hard Drive.

[Clearair]

Hi and thanks to all replies.
I will maintain a backup of both Apples tools, vault +time machine on external HD. To this I will add a clone of my libraries all on separate partitions.
If I can I will have two of these, one offsite which will not be backed up as often as the one onsite but will be run every two months.
I will keep another HD with only original raws/tiffs/jpegs onsite, catalogued to mirror libraries content.
This will be used to write to BR for storage onsite and possibly second copies offsite. A checksum file will be used to verify content of the BR media by looking at a couple every six months or so. This is my fall back point.

I am doing this as I believe optical solutions have improved recently.

I have just got back over a thousand and thirty seven files of importance to me off a handful of old DVDs written four years ago on an old Macbook while on a farm in Northern Namibia. I was concerned about equipment loss so these were a stash hidden in my clothes. Long forgotten. See Aperture post disaster to see how these have helped me retrieve some of a buggered Aperture library. ALL files on these disks, stored in plastic sleeves, read perfectly, and now reside in a new Aperture library. I know DVD format is not BR but I will invest more in quality and the handling of BR media.
I will report in time when I can get all this up and running. Warts and all.
Happy New Year

[dgillilan]

I use a USB 3 Asus blu ray writer, it is external so I can use it with several laptops and desktops.
I use Nero software to write images to my blu ray discs. I use Verbatim blu ray discs, 25 gb.
I also backup to external hard disk drives and to a Synology Diskstation network attached storage.
I have not had problems  with any of these choices and I recommend each method.
I also recommend the blu ray writer and the discs that I have used. I back up raw images and jpg images.
I use Nikon and one Fuji X100 camera, so am backing up Nefs, Rafs, and jpgs. Occasionally, a dng or psd file also.

Debra

[Rhossydd]

Currently can't find a 1TB from the suppliers.

Amazon, Scan, Novatech all have 1tb HDDs in stock. Prices start at less than £40.