[DennyL]

OK, so you've got 40 gigs of music on your iPod, iRiver, iAudio or whatever. What arrangements have you made in anticipation of the day when the player's hard disk goes belly-up?

40 gigs would copy to about ten DVDs, and that leads into the worries about DVD-R durability.

I'm thinking of getting a DDS3 tape drive, and it would go onto about three tapes.

If this has been done to death I would be pleased to see the links, or to know what other people do.

 

[DaKi][er]

You have it all on your PC's hard drive?

2 copies in two seperate devices is a pretty good backup in my book

 

[mister__big]

With external hard drives as cheap as they are now, they are pretty much the best bang for the buck in terms of backup solutions. Unless you don't trust HDDs, in which case rewritable DVDs are probably your best bet.

No backup medium can last forever. DVDs are considered to be quite long lasting (about 10,000 writes) and they should only wear out and cease to function after the format has completely died (see VHS).

 

[Sparky191]

Well I back all my PC data, not just my music on to 2 external USB disks. 200GB each. One gets put away for long term back up, should really be to another location. The other is used for weekly backup and hauling my data here and there. So 3 copies as there on on my PC aswell. Anything really important like family photos also goes on to a DVD every so often.

I use a variety of players but none has my complete library on it.

 

[KenW]

Like the others have said....get an external HD and backup not only your music files but your PC as well. Dantz Retrospect is a great program. Well worth the money and it's saved my bacon just recently!

 

[derek8555]

Ya, get a 250Gb hdd, they are dirt cheap now ($70? ) and put in an external 3.5" closure.

 

[pata2001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DennyL O 40 gigs would copy to about ten DVDs, and that leads into the worries about DVD-R durability.

Why? DVD media are cheap and excellent backup medium, provided you buy the right media, not just some cheap stuff. I've been backing up all my music uncompressed to DVDs. Best bet is to have 2 backup medium, as many have said. Probably 1 as an external hard-drive, and 1 as removable media (DVD).

I can't wait for affordable data blu-ray/HD-DVD!

 

[iancraig10]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pata2001 Why? DVD media are cheap and excellent backup medium, provided you buy the right media, not just some cheap stuff. I've been backing up all my music uncompressed to DVDs.

I've been backing up photos to DVD but I am worried about reports of the media not lasting too long even in storage. A few months back, there was some scare about the longevity of DVD's and the dye used in them. It worried me.

I store about 50 gig of mp3 on a separate external hard drive and when I get a new bigger one, I'll copy them again to the new unit just for safety.

Ian

 

[DennyL]

Quote:

Why? DVD media are cheap and excellent backup medium, provided you buy the right media, not just some cheap stuff. I've been backing up all my music uncompressed to DVDs.

Some people find the durablity of DVDR is very fraught and worrying:-

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210839

 

[pata2001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DennyL Some people find the durablity of DVDR is very fraught and worrying:- http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210839

That's the problem if you just pick whatever cheapest on the market. I've been very careful with my selection of DVD media (I was not aware when I first got into DVD burning, and I know some media are plain crap) that I don't have any problems with all my DVD backups that I did at least a year ago. It's like backing up your data on a deathstar IBM hard-drive, it won't be reliable either.

 

[Sparky191]

The problem is not just the cheapest media. Its always been a concern for consumer CD/DVD recorders.

 

[ComfyCan]

I back everything up, in Flac, on 2 external hard drives. They've gotten so cheap that it's well worth the investment. I don't want to have to re-rip all of those cd's again!

BTW, my favorite is the portable Western Digital 120 GB bus powered USB drive. It is tiny, quiet, very durable, and I get no access delay issues whatsoever. It cost a bit more than the larger drives, but it is designed to take a beating without failing. I have so much crap on my laptop hard drive that I now keep all of my music on the lttle Western Digital.

 

[pheonix991]

Just get a nice 300gig hdd, put an image of the mp3 player on it, and take it out of ur comp. Easy as that.

 

[bigshot]

Ten DVD-Rs would do the trick for a five spot. Use Taiyo Yudin and verify the burns.

See ya
Steve

 

[DennyL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot Ten DVD-Rs would do the trick for a five spot. Use Taiyo Yudin and verify the burns. See ya Steve

I try to standardise on Taiyo Yudin DVDs. But in an industry with so much branding, rebranding and counterfeiting, I don't really know how to be sure that I'm getting the real thing. Here's a link about it:-

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/91

And on the problems of sourcing Taiyo Yudins:-

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=112854

After I've burnt a DVD I check it with CD-Check (http://www.kvipu.com/CDCheck/ ), and write on the DVD the date of burning and the number of errors, which is normally zero. I should then be able to go back to a DVD and see whether it has deteriorated, and in what time.