Digital BW, The Print

All this talk of the frailty of back ups on disc is making me hanker  
after film :0)
I don't know if it at all relevant but I store all my images on DVD  
RAM (with double back ups on CDs for really precious ones). It means  
the discs are permanently housed in a protective case and one can add  
images as they are created rather than accumulating for a burn. The  
down side is the discs are quite dear. I think the flexibility  
offsets the cost disadvantages though. However, I would be interested  
to know if anyone has a favourite brand for reliability. I use mostly  
LaCie. Maxell or Imation. I use them in a built in drive on my G4  
which doubles as a CD ROM but I would be curious to know if it is now  
possible to get an option which combines either a DVD RAM and a CDR/ 
RW drive or a DVD RAM and DVDR without requiring me to take the DVD  
RAM discs out of the cartridges.

Drew

On 19 Mar 2006, at 19:03, sinar001 wrote:

> You guys talk about the use of "gold" media, as if it were the panacia
> for long term storage. The reflective layer is but one source of
> problems for CD's & DVD's!
>
> If you have read any of the reports on this problem, you will notice
> that the greatest weakness of the media is the dye that is used to
> create the dots! I believe there are three kinds of dyes used the the
> manufacture of the disks. Two of them are rather unstable, the third
> seems to have pretty good life. (I don't have the actual data
> available here at home)
>
> The other sources of failure are ply separation, deformation due to
> heat and various failures of the reflective layer.
>
> Good storage practices are the best way of preventing data loss of
> disks. This means keeping the disks at constant room temperature, and
> out of exposure to light.
>
> The most important procedure, not to overlook, is keeping your fingers
> crossed. ;-)
>
> Your best bet is having multiple back-up stragegies--Hard disks and
> CD/DVD/s. Heard reports that Google is talking having free back-up
> type program at some time in the future.
>
> John Nollendorfs