Cd Question ? Help!

[TRANSMAN]

What is the best disc to store general Data,Music,Video,Pictures,"STUFF" on with DVD+R/RW drive with CD writer capabilities? Have only had this new computer with above thing for a week and have been transferring data and pictures to old RCA AUDIO CD-R discs i bought 3-4 years ago . Used these old discs purchased for old CD-R CD music recorder, multi changer and thought that CD-R discs were for music only as thats what the box says. CD-R discs seem to work fine except i cant remove/delete anything from them. What is the most desireable disc for EVERYTHING? Keep getting differant answers in store and blank stares from people who are supposed to know these things.Want to buy a box of 50 so would like to make the correct purchase. Do still have 25 or so CD-R blanks so should i just use them and will they copy video? TRANS.

[Woody]

Transman:

Consider this...... Compact Disks are designed with a useful lifespan of 100 years. DVD's are designed with a useful lifespan of 1,000 years. If I were archiving things of very high importance, it would be to DVD, and I would burn multiple copies and store them at seperate physical locations. This would only be appropriate for irreplaceable data.

For normal, everyday tasks, cd's are quite adequate. The difference between the "audio" and "data" cd's is that the audio CD's have a specific byte writtne at the beginning in one of the sub-channels, designating them as "audio", and are a bit pricier. The reason is that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) gets some of that money, thus making the end price higher. Also, some AUDIO equipment won't record (such as cd-to-cd copying equipment for a home stereo) on a data disk. Other than that, one is no "better" than the other, and physically, is NO DIFFERENT than the other.

As far as the "best disk", I am personally quite partial to the Verbatim Blue's..... Now pretty much aqua in color, rather than blue (a slight formulary change). I have never had a problem with them, nor has anyone else I know. I have also had very good luck with media by Fujitsu (Fujifilm brand).

As far as general care, common sense of handling as little as possible, etc., applies. Also, while many think that the surface the laser "sees" is the side the recording media is on, this is incorrect. The media is actually on the LABEL SIDE. Thus, any decent sized scratches on the LABEL side will ruin the disk. So will using the incorrect instrument to write on the label side! There are markers made JUST FOR that purpose, which are recommended. A Sharpie marker has been used by many with no ill effects, but it will discolor the substrate, possibly leading to read errors in the future.

When it comes to DVD's, that is a similar, but slightly different, subject. There are still 2 different standards, the DVD+, and the DVD-, sort of like VHS and Betamax in the early videocassette days. Some companies now make DVD burners that will do both formats (DVD+ and DVD-). Unfortunately, you can not use "DVD Plus" media in "DVD minus" equipment, and vice versa.

I am still going through my last purchase of Verbatims. I grabbed several hundred at Sam's Club on the cheap, like $14.00 for a hundred of the 80 minute (700 megabyte) 48-speed rated disks. I've gone through quite a few of these, and all have performed flawlessly.

The disks you currently have should be adequate. As far as being able to "delete" stuff, that is a rewrite operation, and you would need CD-RW media to do that, along with packet-writing software. Once the session has been closed on the disk, the only way to delete something is to rewrite the entire disk with the new information. CD-RW media is good for 100 operations (100 writes to the disk), and then it is stuck with the information last written to it.

Woody

[Scaper-S2k]

There is currently a big stink about the true longevity of CD's. Yes, they are suppose to last a long time. But if you go to photographic websites you will find many, many people worried because their CD's haven't lasted any where near as long as they are suppose to. There are some pros on those sites talking well over my head about lost data in many things, not just photos.

Matter of fact, I have a few CD's that I burned about 5 years ago and they too have pieces 'missing'. Some pictures are half solid blue. Bad brands of CD's I guess. But I think I bought pretty good ones. Sometimes you may burn a CD and 2 days later it has tons of missing data.


You should make at least 2 copies of each disk, using different brands.

A girl I deal with that works for a graphic design company says her company is going through the same thing, and they use the better equipment. Even their old Zip drives have lost data on the disks.

Slapping a 5-7 year old burned CD in your drive, you will likely find some errors on it somewhere.

They say the best disks are Mitsui (or somehting like that).



Using GrassMasters advice, I burn new disks fairly often. I also have 2 seperate external harddrives that I use for back ups as well.




As Woody stated though, the DVD's are better. The Verbatim datalife plus has some kind of metal coating that is suppose to last a very long time.

[TRANSMAN]

Thanks guys!

I tried researching this on the net early this morning,3am .Best site had so much info spread out throughout a long page that would have taken me 24 hrs to read. I attempted but after 20 mins i started nodding off and my mental processor completely locked up. I think you guys summed up everything that i was attempting to read in your posts above.Appreciate you takeing the time to explain in language i can understand. I am especially greatfull you told me about the importance of backing up and makeing coppies of anything very important.I WAS under the impression CD`s were bulletproof but it appears they have some of the same problems the old 8mm and VHS video tapes had.I have so many old tapes of my grandparents that are degradeing and was hopeing to get them on somthing that would be around and working when i`m a grandfather.I`ll make sure to get quality CD`s/DVD`s for those and make coppies/ back up as you recommended.THANKS A LOT GUYS!!!!SINCERELY ,TRANS

[Littleriver1]

http://www.smartcomputing.com/messages/question.asp?guid=utwxua6a

[LALawnman]

[QUOTE=TRANSMAN] CD-R discs seem to work fine except i cant remove/delete anything from them.

CD-R disks are a one shot deal. CD-RW are re-writeable.