DVD or BR For Archiving

[Handler]

Hi,

 

Our family pictures that I've taken over the years are consuming about 40 GBs and are currently sitting on a older hard drive. The hard drive is fine now, but you never know. It's time that the pictures get archived. I'm not interested in a cloud solution, so instead I'm thinking about burning multiple discs, but which type?

 

As for DVD; it's a mature technology. Discs are cheap and I already own the burner. The downside is the available free space per disc, and how many discs would be required to backup the data and make copies of the backup discs. And, I'm concerned to some degree about 'Disc Rot'.

 

As for Blu-ray; the technology hasn't been around as long as DVD, so 'Disc Rot' or other decaying factors perhaps aren't fully realized yet. I don't own a Blu-ray burner and even though the discs are not as cheap as blank DVDs, they are reasonably affordable. Certainly the capacity is a big plus, where the required discs to backup and make copies of the backup discs would be few and easily stored.

 

What's your thoughts? Would you use DVD or BR for archiving?

 

Thanks.

[Handler]

Oh, poo. Sorry, I keep forgetting to scroll down far enough in the main index to see the Chat forum, where this question would have likely been more on-topic. I didn't see a way to delete so I could recreate it there.

[laserfan]

DVD or BR for archiving?

Clearly BR would be most appropriate for you (2 discs and you've got everything). But both DVD and BR are susceptible to aging and deterioration over time--you can look for "archival quality" discs and get the best of each type to minimize such problems.

 

But for precious family photos and/or videos I would never rely on discs alone. Sure, make (two sets or more) of DVD/BR, but also get a cheap external USB hard drive or flash disk and put one or two of those in a fireproof safe.

 

You can NOT be too careful when it comes to backups.

[Handler]

You're right, I wouldn't rely on discs alone. Right now I have a chance to replace one or both burners in this computer. The old Pioneer DVR-108 has trouble reading some burned discs and while it burns okay, the drawer on the Plextor PX-740a won't always open when the button is pushed. Concerns over archiving the photos has sped up their replacement.

 

Is it fair to say that due to the greater accuracies of the Blu-ray format, does a Blu-ray burner make for a better DVD burner? If so, which Blu-ray burner would you recommend?

[nstgc]

BD-R disks are cheaper per GB. For the same price you would create several identical copies plus error correction data. Also the BD-R I have seem to be sealed better than DVD(+/-)Rs that I've had. Better sealing should mean less rot.