#use of CD-ROM as archive
6 messages in this thread
Does anyone have experience using CD-ROM as an archive medium? I
would prefer not to buy a tape back-up unit if I could find a
publisher willing to publish one copy each of just a few disks. I
could upload my DOS files (mostly text) onto Compuserve or the
Internet, and e-mail or ftp them to the publisher. Does this sound
feasible?
Glenn,
feasible, but not very cost effective. Assuming you could get an extremely
cheap CD one-off made, i.e. < $150, it wouldn't take many discs to add up to
more than you would pay for a very nice tape unit.
if you use CI$ or EMAIL. you could justify the cost of the tape even easier.
Glen Chapman
Go to the PhotoForum (GO: PHOTOF) and search the digital imaging library for
Kodak writable CD information.
Kodak sells a CD writer for $6,995. Once you have that and software for your
system, you can put 650 MB of data on a very durable one-off CD that costs
about $25 each. We have published a release stating that our test indicate "at
least" 30 years life on the discs, but I am now updating that release to say at
least 100 years.
Regards … Paul
Paul,
You're hardly being fair. You're suggesting Glenn go out and shell out $6995
for some hardware, plus a few thousand for some software just so he can buy
Kodak blanks. All this because he doesn't want to spend a few hundred on a
tape unit.
Seems to me you'd have done him a bigger service to have suggested he go to a
CD service shop and have his CD made. Since you represent Kodak, you could
have suggested he request a Kodak blank.
Jerry Warner
CD Solutions, Inc.
Jerry,
He doesn't need to use Kodak discs in the Kodak writer. Any Orange Book
compatible disc will work.
He can go to a service bureau to have his CD-ROM discs written.
What is the cost to have a disc written at a service? How does he get the
roughtly 600 MB of content to the service bureau?
My suggestion was based on our experience that CD-ROM media give excellent
durability (up to 100 years) and cost about 4 cents per megabyte for data
storage. It seems fair enough to me to suggest this as a solution.
Furthermore, he can price shop. He can get a CD writer for $4,000, if he
doesn't mind working at half the speed of the Kodak or other double speed
writers. And he may be able to buy cheaper discs than Kodak's. However, I am
not as knowledgable of other companies' products as of our own.
CD-ROM is becoming a popular archiving medium. This forum probably confirms
this fact.
Regards … Paul
Glenn,
Although the media itself is more expensive, consider the following:
1) All your archive disks will probably fit on a single CD.
2) Indexes can be created so that you can instantly access
and of your documents.
3) The CD-ROM is a disk so you maintain the heirarchial
structure that makes it useful.
You're probably like me on the internet. I save everything that floats across
it just in case its useful someday. But once the
data is offline, its usefulness diminishes rapidly.
I routinely use both but I only use tape for backups and never for
archived data. Besides, it gives you a warm fuzzy to see the data
there whenever you check. 🙂
Finally, we are finally upgrading our internet access to a 56K feed
so we can help you out if you need a QuickOne(tm).
David L. Edwards
Shoestring Engineering, Inc.