CD-Rs do NOT have such reliability. The longest average life you could expect out of a standard CD-R nowadays would be two years, PROVIDED you kept it under truly ideal conditions, which most of us have no hope achieving. Good luck finding archival CD-Rs. I haven't seen any at all for over two years, and the dyes in all current CD-Rs are poor.
The ONLY reliable long term storage is still printed paper, again assuming quality materials and storage. If you use CD-R backups, apart from doing them regularly, you need to check them immediately after burning, and in a DIFFERENT CD drive. This means you MUST have at least TWO CD drives in your computer (easy--CD burners are low cost). Nowadays make that one DVD burner (also burns CDs) and one DVD reader (also reads and maybe burns CDs). As soon as you cannot easily read CDs you have burnt, REPLACE the burner with a new one. Burners are cheap-- treat them as disposable the instant they play up. Peter --------------------------------------------------------- Peter Haughton [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 6:42 AM > To: LegacyUserGroup@legacyfamilytree.com > Subject: RE: [LegacyUG] Making a backup of my family file > > > Regarding Backups: The latest news is that CDs have a reliable > life of about > 30 years. DVDs, about 10. You can buy archival disks with a > longer life. The > most reliable backup medium is a hard drive. They are quite inexpensive. I > buy an external drive case (about the size of a novel), put in a > hard drive, > plug it into a USB or flash port, turn it on and drag and drop my > important > files (Including installation files for Legacy), unplug the drive > and store > it away from dust and electromagnetic risks. No need for CD > burning software > at all. Painless and reliable. You can buy external drives ready-made, but > doing it yourself is cheaper and very easy. > > If you do use CD or DVD disks, remember to redo them every few > years. Either > can be tricky to create so that they will play on other computers. I just > use settings that enhance compatibility. The DVD + format seems to be the > most universally compatible. > > To address the problem of your program telling you to insert a disk, I can > relate! Each CD recorder has some disks it will not recognize. Different > brands of disks use different types of coatings. You will notice that some > are blue, some silver, etc. Read the manual that came with your equipment. > It should tell you what brands work with your particular hardware. > > Judie > > > > Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
