Topic: quick geek poll: optical backups of your data?

[Anders]

Backups? What's that?

[GodSlayer]

Backups? What's that?

it's what anal people do so they don't have to be content after being forced to format their hard disk.


seriously, I saw some old files from 2005 the other day. ...it's beyond ridiculous, but I can't let go.

[khendar]

Backups? What's that?

it's what anal people do so they don't have to be content after being forced to format their hard disk.


seriously, I saw some old files from 2005 the other day. ...it's beyond ridiculous, but I can't let go.

I have digital scans of receipts, payslips, timesheets, tax records etc which you're technically required by law to keep for 7 years (I think). Hence backups are important.

[GodSlayer]

I have digital scans of receipts, payslips, timesheets, tax records etc which you're technically required by law to keep for 7 years (I think). Hence backups are important.

good thing they're not the kind of dicks who say 'original documents only, no copies'

[kvuo75]

i pretty much just copy everything onto the next biggest harddrive I acquire.  buy a new laptop? once it's on my network, copy all my old stuff from old laptop, etc. etc.

One thing is though, all the GB's of photos and videos for instance, I insist on backing up.. yet I have not looked at 90% of them in years. this is hording.

[khendar]

I have digital scans of receipts, payslips, timesheets, tax records etc which you're technically required by law to keep for 7 years (I think). Hence backups are important.

good thing they're not the kind of dicks who say 'original documents only, no copies'

They probably are, but in the event that something catastrophic happens like I accidentally feed my cat after midnight and it turns into a monster which shreds and then consumes my paper copies, then at least I have some form of security.

[Traveler]

I used to backup to an external drive and CD/DVD, but I haven't bothered with the CD/DVDs for a few years. I experienced a lot of failures while trying to restore files from CD and DVD. This was particularly true if I no longer had the drive that created the disk. As disk capacities have gotten larger and costs have come down it is no longer a necessity for me to burn things to CD/DVD just to free up disk space. Plus, I don't even want to think about how long it would take to backup 400+ GB to DVDs.

[kvuo75]

I experienced a lot of failures while trying to restore files from CD and DVD. This was particularly true if I no longer had the drive that created the disk.

good point.. my car's cd player cant read a mp3 data cd written by my old laptop's cd/dvd burner, but can from my newest laptop.. i cant even imagine trying to read a 10 yr old cd. 

[khendar]

I experienced a lot of failures while trying to restore files from CD and DVD. This was particularly true if I no longer had the drive that created the disk.

good point.. my car's cd player cant read a mp3 data cd written by my old laptop's cd/dvd burner, but can from my newest laptop.. i cant even imagine trying to read a 10 yr old cd.

I used to have a lot of divx movies on cd in folders. After not touching them for about 5 years I took a folder out and tested them. A full 50% of the discs failed to read.

[GodSlayer]

mmm, that's annoying.
my old PC had two CD drives, and, yea, sometimes one could rip what the other couldn't. ...that sucks (although I have a SATA/USB cord, now, so...) ...maybe I should try that (when I replaced my CDs with DVDs there were a handful the new PC couldn't rip)

[GodSlayer]

I used to backup to an external drive and CD/DVD, but I haven't bothered with the CD/DVDs for a few years. I experienced a lot of failures while trying to restore files from CD and DVD. This was particularly true if I no longer had the drive that created the disk. As disk capacities have gotten larger and costs have come down it is no longer a necessity for me to burn things to CD/DVD just to free up disk space. Plus, I don't even want to think about how long it would take to backup 400+ GB to DVDs.

man, I was using some fuckin program that didn't work right when I first moved to DVDs...it took like an hour to verify. (then someone told me to use IMGBurn, which does it in about 10 minutes)

the main thing I like about disks is that it's impermanent -- if I want to rename or change file info, or rearrange shit, I can. if I burn a DVD, I want it all nicely sorted ...and that's the biggest time-waste of the whole process.