Discussion Forums > Technology
Optical drives becoming obsolete?
per:
--- Quote from: rostheferret on June 26, 2012, 09:30:22 AM ---
--- Quote from: kamuixtv99 on June 26, 2012, 06:03:05 AM ---Another thing. There was a topic here in bbt on how do you store your downloads. I was amazed that some people here use HDDs and not optical media. You can't do that now, the warranty period before was 5 years and now it's only 2 years plus HDDs today are getting inferior they break in a matter of time. Maybe it's easy to replace for a new one but the trouble is not worth.
--- End quote ---
I used DVDs once. About 3 years on half of them refuse to work and need replacing. I'll definitely take HDDs over Optical media, it's quicker and easier to backup, smaller (physically), easier to notice when they 'expire,' and honestly, £100 for a 2TB HDD isn't a huge amount for all that convenience.
--- End quote ---
HDD:s that are not actively used almost always last longer than normal quality DVD:s, yes, especially if the DVD:s are not keept in a cold, dark place for storage (such as a bank vault or similar).
And a DVD can barely hold any data at all, so having backups on optical media is really not very convenient. I would need some 3k DVD:s to backup my harddrives.
If nothing else that would cost about $3k with even semi-durable DVD:s ($30k with 'archival quality' discs, that are guaranteed to last 5 years when stored in a dark room temperature place).
It is almost always better to use live-storage, and copy from broken drives as needed.
However, always make sure to have at least two copies of the data (either use RAID/mirroring or simply have two copies).
If you really want to make sure it survives, also store the data off-site. That is sort of overkill for most downloaded stuff, though, since there is already an online backup..
megido-rev.M:
--- Quote from: kamuixtv99 on June 26, 2012, 06:03:05 AM ---Another thing. There was a topic here in bbt on how do you store your downloads. I was amazed that some people here use HDDs and not optical media. You can't do that now, the warranty period before was 5 years and now it's only 2 years plus HDDs today are getting inferior they break in a matter of time. Maybe it's easy to replace for a new one but the trouble is not worth.
--- End quote ---
A. warranty is irrelevant as you lose all data when it takes effect
B. avoid low grade hard disk drives
C. take care of the stuff, and do it well
Optical discs are read-only and slow, and can rot, not something would I like dealing with. Incidentally, I have old archive DVDs lying around which I'm pretty much going to dump out when I get to it. Not sure if me leaving them vulnerable to sunshine has been very helpful in preserving them either.
1212magicman:
Discs get scratched and smudged, where as hard discs usually never fail completely before you can back up your data. I still have my old ones from 98 and they sure lasted longer than my CD's from the same era which are now cup coasters.
GoGeTa006:
I thought the poll was gonna b pretty 1 sided but its a very fair match . . .specially between "Yes" and "My Little Pony Roxx my Soxx"
Freedom Kira:
--- Quote from: kamuixtv99 on June 26, 2012, 06:03:05 AM ---Another thing. There was a topic here in bbt on how do you store your downloads. I was amazed that some people here use HDDs and not optical media. You can't do that now, the warranty period before was 5 years and now it's only 2 years plus HDDs today are getting inferior they break in a matter of time. Maybe it's easy to replace for a new one but the trouble is not worth.
--- End quote ---
Warranty period is not a valid indicator of how reliable a disk is. While there is some correlation due to manufacturers choosing their warranty periods to cover a certain percentage of failures, it is not definitive.
Modern HDDs do suck compared to old ones, but the point of "they break in a matter of time" applies to every HDD ever manufactured. Every disk will fail given infinite time.
And despite all that, HDDs are still far more reliable and less expensive in the long run than optical media, not to mention much easier to use and less time-consuming. Optical media degrades over time - I'd be surprised if the DVDs sitting on your shelf haven't lost your data after 5-10 years. And like someone else mentioned, HDDs fail gradually, while optical discs are instant. You can usually get the majority of your data out of a failing drive before it completely crashes and burns, but once a sector or two of a DVD is gone, you're completely screwed.
While DVDs still offer the lowest potential $/GB (about $25 for 100 discs = about 440GB), it's difficult to go through a 100-disc spindle without a single coaster. And even after that, in the time it takes you to burn 20 DVDs, I can transfer enough data to fill a 1TB disk. It really isn't worth it.
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