Archiving to BluRay

[frailer]

Must be almost time now, to get this under way. Off to look for an external burner/drive on OWC in a mo.
Question: I run CD Finder as archive index. I assume I'd be able to mount (BluRay) disk in external, and it would show as a disk on Desktop. (To index a DVD in CD Finder, you drag the disk icon into the indexing list, it catalogues it, you then assign your own disk number/ID >> eject > store. Can't see why you shouldn't be able to do this. I'll consult CD Finder's website; info may be there too.

Oh, and single layer(25GB) would be safer for data storage, correct?    :undecided:

[Joe]

I wouldn't do it when you can archive to hard disk cheaper and imo more reliably than on an optical disk. You can pick up a 500 gb drive for under $50. Just get one of those units from OWC that I linked to skryber recently. It will be faster, cheaper and more reliable than blu-ray.

[Joe]

Oh....here is the link I gave skryber:

If you really want the all in one RAID 1 so you know you always have a duplicate then check out these puppies. Definitely the way to go if you have the cash for it...

The 1.5 TB + 1.5 TB model is in the range I quoted you before for the two externals. But much simpler to setup. And OWC will stand behind it.

Guardian Maximus


Hardware RAID-1 (Mirrored) data redundant solutions

[gnubler]

I was gonna say...

I looked into it at one point but the cost was a turnoff. I'm even turned off by the dual layer DVDs which is why I don't have a boot disk for my secondhand iMac.

I remember the days when VHS movies cost $80 retail and now they're 50 cents at junk sales so it's only a matter of time.

[frailer]

This is true archive, rather than (often) accessed jobs. And not part of 'backup', which is separate.
But the OWC solution may be the one; just wanna make sure.
It's a once a week thing, if that. Sometimes 2~3 years back, usually more recent. My logic is that they're indexed, on a shelf, readily accessible. Not hooked up to anything, chewing current. Are you saying Joe that I could shelve that drive once full. Index it in some way. Then buy another and kick on again? When that's full....

Just want to clarify, as this is very occasional access.

[andyfest]

We're using the same method as you frailer for archiving jobs - DVD & CD Finder. I do find that single layer DVDs usually have fewer problems than dual layer. When we're not busy, like right now, we'll burn maybe two DVDs weekly. When we're busy we'll burn a couple of DVDs daily. CD Finder does still seem to be the best tracker I've used. We still pull the occasional job out from the early 2000's and have never experienced a loss of data or an unreadable disc. Just in case tho' we do burn duplicates for every disc and store them offsite.

[David]

I just purchased two internal Seagate 1Tb drives for 58 bucks each from CDW.
They are almost getting to the point of being disposable.

[Joe]

This is true archive, rather than (often) accessed jobs. And not part of 'backup', which is separate.
But the OWC solution may be the one; just wanna make sure.
It's a once a week thing, if that. Sometimes 2~3 years back, usually more recent. My logic is that they're indexed, on a shelf, readily accessible. Not hooked up to anything, chewing current. Are you saying Joe that I could shelve that drive once full. Index it in some way. Then buy another and kick on again? When that's full....

Just want to clarify, as this is very occasional access.

Yes, you can remove the drives and set them on the shelf and stick new drives in it and away you go. Also comes with:

ProSoft Engineering® Data Backup for Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later

NovaStor NovaBACKUP® for Windows 2000 or later

You can configure the drives as either 2 stand alone drives, a striped set (RAID 0), or a mirrored RAID (RAID 1).

We use hard drive backup but for both long term archive and short term backup. I'll never go back to tape or CD/DVD/Blu-Ray.

[frailer]

                  Thanks. I shall meditate on all the above.

[frailer]

Well, yeah, it's dawned on me at last that a 2TB. one would hold 500 DVD's worth, mirrored. Not to mention the extreme tediousness of burning/indexing. Please confirm my arithmetic's correct, based on 4Gb/DVD. The 0.7 Gb's really an unused margin, in reality.

[Joe]

Yep, that's pretty close. And the HD solution takes up a lot less space than 500 dvd's. As David mentioned earlier, "They (hard drives) are almost getting to the point of being disposable".

In my link above, if you are looking at the 2TB + 2 TB model, it will take a lot of time to fill those up. I would buy 2 extra drives and when the first gets full (2 TB because the other drive is used as the mirror) you can just pull them out and set them on the shelf, put the two new ones in and away you go. It might be even better to get two units because if you need to pull info from the one on the shelf you will have to pull the current drives in the unit and replace them with the old ones and when done swap them out again. 2 units of the 2TB + 2 TB model is still under $800 bucks.

[frailer]

Manager here just walked a rep through the door from the IT company that looks after the whole show, including parent Co. They are looking here (upstairs) at a new RAID5 (prolly) NAS storage. Long overdue for them. Mgr. brought him in to run my plan past him for going to RAID1 style archiving, away from DVD. (see earlier discussion).
He floated the idea of archiving our prepress jobs on their new server. We can see each other on the network; I guess we have a sub-net of sorts here. We have an 8 port Netgear GS108 to hook up the Macs, XMF server.
Anyone see any obstacles to 'piggy-backing' in this way? Rather than run something on my own?

[Joe]

Yeah, I'm sure they aren't going to let you do it for free so I'm sure he would love you to do that. The less hands in the fire the better in my book. I'd rather do it myself. But that's just me. If you archive to his server and it breaks down while he is on holiday in Fiji then you are screwed.

[frailer]

Well, in a way, it's more their problem than mine, if they want files moved onto there. There are 2 bods in the office, one's always there. If they need a job, in theory, they could look for it themselves. We usually access them for some piece of content that head office needs. It's not often.
I think I'd be happy enough with that stuff sitting on their RAID5 system. The novelty of DVD archiving has pretty much worn off, that's for sure.

[Joe]

We used to deal with an "IT company". Very bad experience. Paid top dollar for techs that came out that knew a lot less than me. It sucks when you have to fix the mess their techs create and then send you a bill for $2400. Never again. No siree Bob.