Which is the best blank archival CD-R? I heard that
Verbatim Data Life Plus is one of the best, but I
cannot seem to find them anywhere in jewel cases. I
have also heard that the Mutsui Golds are no longer
that good, just expensive.

Patrick Ray Dunn

You could buy the jewel cases separately. I usually get my cases at Fry's Electronics.

Mr. Dunn,

These cd's and dvd r's are, if you trust my friend Bjorn (which you should cause he's the smartest dumb ass I know) the most stable of them all.

I have archived stuff for hundreds of years on these things and will swear by them. When I was a longshoreman in the late 1700's and visiting China, my mentor in chinese skyscraper demolition, took many snaps of me standing by an old tree. The old tree was chopped up and turned into, you may have guessed, chopsticks...The snapshots, however, live on. When I look at them today I am still watery eyed and twitchy upper lipped over the good times we had bungee jumping with long noodles.

you may read about this media at...

http://www.mam-a.com/Default.htm

They are very expensive, this makes them perfect for photography.

Thanks O & Oh.....

I just bought the jewel cases, I will mail order the 50 spindle verbatim Data Life Plus. San Antonio is such a backwater town with no excuse due to the fact it is about the 8th largest city here in 'Merica.

I know a Bjorn, but this one I suspect is J. Edgar Hoover minus the dress. Hoover actually is alive & went underground after he found out G. Gordon Liddy had a thing for him. And I actually got one of those antique chopsticks that you were talking about. Sold it on ebay & made a large fortune. So now I can quit my staff photog job, and freelance again to make a small fortune. Large fortune + freelance photography=small fortune.

Patrick Ray Dunn

montespluga,

Wow! That was more than I ever wanted to know about DVDs. My brain almost fried like a five stack of LaCie drives. Good info.

DO NOT DO IT!!!!!

no CDs or DVDs are an archival soultion beyond 2-3 years maximum, the dyes used will deteriorate no matter which brand you use. The only safe way to archive digital media, is on a hard drive kept safe.

Hi Rod,

CDs are just part of my backup. I keep select images on my main computer's hard drive, and I also have a LaCie that I keep LZW Tiffs of most all that I shoot. I also have another really old computer (604e) to burn the raw files from the camera & raw scans, and these are burned on a really slow 4x CD burner. Slow is good. I then burn 3 CDs. I keep one at home & send the other to CDs to two other locations. I'm pretty well covered on backup.

If I were you, I would NOT rely on just hard drives. Go to the achives here having to do with hard drives, especially LaCie Porches, and you'll realize that relying on just hard drives is pretty risky.

Patrick Ray Dunn

MAM-A's Gold Archive CD-Rs and DVD-Rs last much longer than regular optical media and can be ordered here:

http://www.mediasupply.com/mtc80lsgoj-25.html

I have Kodak Gold CDs burned 10 years ago at 2x and they're still going strong. So much for the 2-3 year max theory, but yes, I do b/u to external hard drives as well. I agree with Patrick that a combination of both is the way to go.

It's my understanding that the Matsui Golds were bought out by another company, and that the Golds were not as good, i.e., had pretty much the same failure rate as standard CDs. I too have golds that have lasted 10 years, but I heard from either this forum or the Photo News Network that they are not the same animal as they were ten years ago. True? False? Does anyone know? Our department was prepared to buy the Golds in bulk until we read that. We are now using the Verbatim DataLife Plus CDs. I also use them at home for freelance work & stock photos. That post on the forum was probably written by a major share holder of Verbatim. I mean, isn't everything you read on the internet 100% true, and written by experts?

Patrick Ray Dunn

I agree that both is the way to go, at least in the short term. Personally I do back up onto DVD for the ease of it, but I also back up onto a hard drive that is kept out of its FW box & safe in static free packaging....

What I meant to say was do not rely only on CD's or DVD's. I am impressed that those Kodak CD's still haven't degraded beyond use, in my own experience I have lost up to 30-40% of data on CD's that are just 3 years old, Verbatim & Kodak.

It depends a lot on the environment the CD/DVDs are stored. Keep them in a cool, but dry, low or no humidity area, preferably in the dark, and with the discs stacked vertically, not face up.

I don't know why that last thing matters and haven't found anyone who can explain why, but do all those other things at least and they should be in good shape for a while.

I'm on my 4th external HD now too. Backing up very diligently to both optical and magnetic based storage is indeed a good thing. And yes, storing in multiple locations.

quote:

I don't know why that last thing matters and haven't found anyone who can explain why, but do all those other things at least and they should be in good shape for a while.

Weight + gravity in larger stacks can be harmful, just like with storing film negs.

Rod,

Everything Marshal said, and are you storing them in jewel cases?