Reply #16: I just had to retrieve all my data from a dying computer

[csziggy]

Over 200 gigabytes. Granted, some is redundant - original scans of photos, edited versions of the same photos, ISO images for CDRs of the same photos, etc.

But this is not all my important data - I have stacks of CDRs with backups of photos, music, contracts, financial data, and other stuff that was not on the computer I just replaced.

I've been backing up data to CDRs for over ten years and so far the only times I have lost anything was when I attempted to use CDRWs and when burning to DVDRs - the program was not compatible with whichever (+ or -) I was using and did not warn of that incompatibility.

Frankly, I have been disappointed with data DVDRs. They hold far too much data and searching for the files takes far too long. With a slower computer, they can be a nightmare to deal with. CDRs are much more universally accessible, faster to access and easily labeled for the smaller amounts of data. Of course, if I get a higher megapixel camera, I may need to go to DVDRs to back up pictures, since even my old 6 megapixel camera's images fill up a CDR really fast.

I burn to CDRs in convenient chunks and do not worry about redundancy - I do not bother checking to see if the pictures have already been archived, I just do it again. I also go through my CDRs and copy off the data and reburn on a regular basis, usually about the time I replace a computer, so I am due now. And I need to work on off-site storage, just in case.

I am not sure I trust an external hard drive - hard drives fail and the bigger the drive, the more likely it is to have a catastrophic failure and the more likely I am to lose a massive amount of data. Flash drives might be more reliable - I don't know since I have not read up on their reliability - but they are small and easy to lose. My husband loses at least one a month.

I've thought of using my extra storage space on my website to upload data - but I do not want it accessible to the public and I am not sure how to secure it against invasion. So for now, I will keep my data on my CDRs. It has worked for over a decade and it is easy for me to do.