Thanks Godfrey, and everyone else who contributed. It looks like the external drives are the way to go - I guess I'll just proceed with this approach going forward and then start chipping away at the older stuff sitting on CD's and DVD's.
A quick tally shows I have 305 DVD's and 813 CD's storing image files that I would want to move to the external drives. If I'm doing the math right that would work out to about 1.8 TB of data (I figure that most of the disk have some degree of slack space on them). I guess I'll start by getting a couple of 500 gig or larger external drives and at go forward with those - then add in the old stuff as I get the chance to work on it. At the prices you quote the 8 500 gig drives I'd need for two copies of the data on these disks would only be about $1,000, and as I work on these the prices will come down. Though, looking around the Internet (even Frys site) I'm seeing prices more in the $150 - 175 per 500 gig drive. Since March 30, the date to which I last cleaned and organized my PC, I've shot about 40 gigs of new images. Things are just starting to pick up but I'd guess that a 500 gig drive would hold 6 - 9 months of data, so that would be about $500 a year for storage. I just have to remind myself of how much I used to spend on film processing to justify the expense.... The only concern I have is that it seems like this approach puts a lot of eggs in one basket, so to speak. I've had a few few CD's go bad (no DVD's - yet) but when they do the loss has been manageable since there are so few files per unite of storage. But losing a 500 gb drive would be a lot. But I guess that's why total redundancy is needed... Thanks again - MCC Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote: > Do yourself a huge favor: > > - Buy a pair of Seagate 500Gbyte external drives. I was at Fry's just > yesterday ... in USB 2.0 only enclosures, these drives would cost > $119 apiece; USB2/FireWire 400 enclosures and the price goes up to > $190 right now. > > - Move all the data from the CDs/DVDs to one of the drives. > > - Copy the entire drive to the other. > > - Backup new data, as you generate it, to both drives. > > - Dismount, disconnect, and unplug the drives when not in use for > backup. > > When they become outdated by 1Terabyte drives at the same price, buy > another pair and move the data to them. > etc > > It's the most efficient, easily maintained, reliable backup/archive > system available today. You can get some low-cost backup software > that will make doing this job fast, easy, consistent and efficient. I > do this myself, have been for five years now. It works flawlessly and > is FAR easier to maintain than mountains of CDs and DVDs. And it's > fast enough to actually be useful. > > Godfrey > > > On Apr 21, 2007, at 7:03 PM, Mark Cassino wrote: > >> One of the things that was kicked around with the advent of digital >> was >> the need to move data from one storage medium to another as they >> become obsolete. >> >> A couple of days ago ago I decided to move the data off 69 CD's, which >> held the "best" of my *ist-D shots for the first few months I had it, >> before getting a DVD burner. >> >> I have to say - it was more of a hassle than I expected. I have a >> spare >> computer here and just fed it the CD's as I was working on the main >> PC. >> The CD's were about 5 years old and none of them were bad - but some >> read fairly slowly, sometimes taking up to 15 minutes to copy onto the >> hard drive, vs 3 to 5 minutes for most. A couple failed with CRC >> errors >> on the first attempt, but then copied successfully after taking >> them out >> and wiping them with a lens cleaning cloth. >> >> Now I have 42 gigs of files to burn onto a few DVD's. >> >> My main motivation for doing this was to make it easier to find some >> images - these CD's had the original PEF's plus 16 bit final TIFF's on >> them, and the files came together in a way that left room for only >> 5 or >> 6 images per CD, with a fair amount of wasted space on each disk. >> >> Over all though, it took hours to copy these files. Since it was a >> background task on a machine that I just use for scanning and >> streaming >> NPR, it wasn't a major problem. But I have roughly 700 more CD's that >> someday will have to be moved - if not onto DVD's then onto some >> future >> media. >> >> The thought of that makes me shudder... >> >> - MCC >> >> -- >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >> Mark Cassino Photography >> Kalamazoo, Michigan >> www.markcassino.com >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > > -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mark Cassino Photography Kalamazoo, Michigan www.markcassino.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
