#Archival Only CDROM
12 messages in this thread
I'm looking to begin archiving large amount of data. The upper-uppers have
agreed on CDROM as the format. Where should I look for archival only CDROM
info/technology ? Using all the multimedia facets of CDROM aren't a concern
at this time. We only need to archive large amount of data onto CDROM's.
Any info/tips/help/comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Are you considering doing this in-house or sending the data out on tape to
be mastered? Also, how will you get the data back online when it's needed?
Do you read CD ROM Professional Magazine? What Operating System to be
used?
Stephen, We'd like to do it in-house,we're a Mac shop, but I'd like to have
the drive available to anyone on our Ethernet (VAX, PC's) <–(this would be
nice, but not a necessity). I'd like to be able to mount the drive and read
it as if it was a BIG hard disk after they've been written. And no, i don't
recieve the aforementioned magazine, but if you could get me a phone number
or address, I'd appreciate it. Thanks. Chris
The company I work for (Meridian Data) has products to do this. You can
get details from our sales department (1-800-76SALES (1-800-767-2537)).
Chris,
How many copies of this stuff are you going to make?? If it's less
than 10 I'd bet that WORM platters would be less expensive than mastering
CDROMS.
Frank
Frank/Lisa That's exactly what my limited knowledge of this subject was
thinking. We would be making only one, maybe two copies of this data. It is
for archival only , and maybe to send copies to gov't agencies (FDA, etc.)
These would only be written once. If you have any info on WORM drives,
(publications, seminars, etc) would be greatly appreciated. Chris
Chris,
Based on the comments from Comdex 91, Magnetic Optical (MO) drives are the
drive of choice for really large archival projects. There was a company
who had designed a system, hardware/software for just this purpose and it
included MO drive, scanner, OCR, and JPEG compression.
It was primarly for large law offices, et al, and handled basements full of
old files, etc. including many which were handwritten.
Now I don't remember the Co's name, but you could check with some of the
Comdex mavens in PCMag Edit or PCWeek fora.
Regards, Bob
In addition to M-O's, there's always the one-off route….
I work for a microfilm company that began delivering images on one-offs
(aka "glass masters") last fall. We bought a Sony cutter, and wrote our own
windows-based software. After analyzing the process for several weeks, we
finally set $100 as the price to cut the one-off, and anywhere from $0.09
to $0.12 per image to scan the work. We do *not* charge our customers a
per-disc license fee.
Oddly enough, our first clients were people who just wanted to archive
mainframe data "offline". Turns out in our innocence, we were charging only
1/4th the usual freight for cutting one-offs. So we analyized our
competitor's prices. Except for the per-disc license fees, we can't see any
real reason for charging more than $100 to $200 for cutting a one-off.
Incidentially, we are *not* interested in doing subcontract one-offs. We
got our hands full taking care of our (former) microfilm clients.
The JVC cutter and the *new* rival Sony cutter will be available this march
in the $10-to-12K range. If you're willing to fork over $3,000 for a mere
1-gigabyte magnetic or $4,500 for a comprable M-O, why not bite the bullet
and get something that does 600 MB at a clip?
..<Bob>
Good plan Bob,
I just dropped the above note because I had read about it in the Comdex
News releases, and it sounded like a better solution that mastering CDRoms
for two copies. (g)
I had collected the info for a friend with a large law firm, mostly in LTD
claims, and had a basement full of files, some of which were written by
hand. He loved the idea. I'll pass the info on your company to him if
you'll send me the name, address, phone, and a non-computer-user
description of how it works. The microfilm history should impress him. One
of his concerns was searchable access when he needed a specific file.
Actually I can back up all the data files on my 340MB disk with the Jumbo
20 tape drive, while I'm having lunch.
Regards, Bob
Bob,
TS Infosystems has an 800-number: 1-800-886-4874. Call me during business
hours (EST), and I'll see that you get our new brochure.
I was at our ad agency today looking at our brochure mockup. They thought
my original ideas were too much "Roger Ramjet", and spent the last week
toning them down. Our packet will be ready in two weeks.
In the meantime, your friend can have our present packet. Vrooom!
..<Bob>
Bob,
Apparently I don't understand how a one-off works, because I'm
boggling at that price too.
I had assumed that a one-off cutter would still require all the
premastering steps, for which everyone charges several hundred bucks,
before you could actually cut the disc, whereas the worm or MO would just
require <<backup olddata\*.*>> and go home for dinner. OTOH, if you are
distributing the things even on a small scale, a CDROM would probably make
the recipients far happier.
On a related subject, what image format do you use?, and do you do
any indexing or just dump the files out to the cutter? I assume that the
9-12 cent/image price is for multiple thousands of 8.5×11 scans, nothing
fancy involved anywhere.
Frank
A one-off cutter requires *all* the premastering steps. You just have to
understand that we are a *microfilm* company, and we organize our work
using a *microfilm* production mindset.
Microfilm clients expect a service bureau to deliver a standardized
product, IAW zillions of international standards. They expect the product
to operate in whatever equipment they choose to use, because that equipment
was designed around the same international standards.
Microfilm clients chortle and laugh when offered the opportunity to OCR and
100%keyword index the resulting text stream. They KNOW how often and in
what context they will retreive documents, because they created and
classified them using….YGI, those same international standards.
So all *WE* did is substitute MS-DOS and VGA and ISO 9660 for some of those
standards, and kept the rest. The result: a DRASTICALLY simplified
production enviornment!
And to keep it that way, we use vanilla-flavored TIFF file formats, and
index on up to three fields. We built our software around Borland C++ and
Paradox tables. The client can easily link our index tables to whatever
database software they happen to be using. Since Phillippe Khan shipped
ObjectVision v. 2.0, our clients can do custom configurations on their own.
Don't you *love* international standards? Horrray for the Yellow, Green and
Oarnge! Long may it wave!
..<Bob>