But how about back-up media? I agree that CDs have a limited lifetime, but I'd also think a CDR or DVD is FAR more reliable and longer-lived than an external drive! I mean hard disks are so much more prone to bumps and knocks, magnets, nuclear fallout and such. A DVD is good for many years, and the files can easily be transferred to new media in the future.
One other thing. I'd suggest you also store a ful-res TIFF of each photo. RAW files depend on propretary software you may not be able to run in ten years.
You're going to force me onto my soapbox, aren't you? From my experience is DVDs are good for a couple months. No longer. Redundant hard drives are FAR more reliable. You also have the advantage of reduced space and management load. Another issue: storing your TIFFs will eat space at an alarming rate. Going by my 8MP camera, that's 90 files per DVD. Or 45 files for a 16MP camera. Start adding layers & things get worse fast. Not efficient.
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NOT!
You're going to force me onto my soapbox, aren't you? From my experience is DVDs are good for a couple months. No longer. Redundant hard drives are FAR more reliable. You also have the advantage of reduced space and management load. Another issue: storing your TIFFs will eat space at an alarming rate. Going by my 8MP camera, that's 90 files per DVD. Or 45 files for a 16MP camera. Start adding layers & things get worse fast. Not efficient.
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