Topic: Back Up Your Stuff! 3 instances of every file makes me sleep better!

[GLouie]

Yeah, my old That's CD-R was won at a studio demo raffle to demonstrate the then amazing ability to actually make your own CDs, on $50 blanks.

[morst]

dang it, edited instead of new message, well here ya go.

Wondering if Verbatim is worth close to a buck a disc when other brands are going for more like fifty cents each, and neither brand is directly listed on the handy reference page as being a registered manufacturer?! Thinking I'll take a chance with some PlexDisc from B&H or maybe even Clamazon...
Logo top is only 40 cents each plus tax at B&H
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1117556-REG/plexdisc_plex_633_814_25gb_bd_r_logo_top.html
*** Was thinking about starting a thread to discuss deals on blank BD-R media...*** edit: I have done so: https://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=201702.0

OMG those Ritek BR-3 plexdiscs are garbage to my Samsung external USB-2 samsung 6x.
One good burn, and the rest fail verify on at least one file each!!
The more costly verbatim CMC IMe discs are great. No errors so far.


got me thinking about how to make sure that the burns are verifiable. Need to include a tested checksum on every burn, for later comparison!

OOPS did not mean to edit this but here we are. d'oh.

[ijwthstd]

I came here to start a thread but

What's the deal with DVD burners only lasting like a few hundred burns give or take?

I like to back up all my masters / friends masters FLAC files on DVD's, 1 Verbatim and 1 Taiyo Yuden. I stared doing this before you could buy 1TB drives for $40.

Still like to do it.

So I have been pretty much burning gobs of stuff for one luddite friend (who doesn't even have a cell phone) but is a taper / filmer going back to the 1970's. And another friend who is semi-developmentally disabled (will never be computer literate) but likes to watch DVD's / listen to live shows by his favorite bands. 30 years ago I was making him cassettes. Friend A I told him no more CD-R's, if you can't handle digital files, not my problem. He is more of a "I need it all" hoarder but I guess he needs another source. But proud of my masters of which there were several I would still burn those for him. Friend B, at the risk of sounding like a shameless profiteer / bootlegger he brings me a burrito every times he comes over and will sometimes gimme a $20 or something especially since I tell him I gotta buy new burners like ALL THE TIME. So the cost is somewhat subsidized but still a total pain.

Local bands I record I give them CD-R's though some are down with FLAC files.

It started when my last new computer had the slimline burner in the case. Lasted a month or so. So now I am buying USB burners by various brands and burning them out. I can make them last a bit longer if I let them "rest" between burns but not by much. I have returned so many I am afraid Amazon is going to stop selling them to me.

Can't go by reviews because none of the reviewers are using them like I am.

Still a big music DVD burner, and never figured out playing from my computer to TV but I know I gotta.

Just opened a new burner today, ASUS ZenDrive which I have been kinda using the most recently and it has a USB-C hardwired plug I can't plug into my computer. Guess I should have read the fine print but didn't even know that was a thing.

Actually wasn't going to even make anything for my friends til I got caught up on data backups which I am like 20 discs behind on.

I even got a standard bigger burner and used the same conversion to USB kit I use for my old internal hard drives but even that didn't last very long.

Anyway, any ideas or do I just gotta tell my friends I can't help them out anymore and be a bit more diligent making sure my hard drives keep working?

[morst]

Sounds like you either keep getting bunk drives, or maybe you have dirty power at your place, that's making the things crap out?
Are you running a UPS or power conditioner?
I've never really HAD TO do that but I've been paranoid about it!



Lately, I'm on a tear burning BD-R's on this nearly ten-year-old external Samsung drive in a USB-2 slim case. It loves Verbatim HTL and my OLD ritek spindle of HTLs, and these old JVC LTH, but the PlexDisc HTL's are crap to it. Got one good burn and then nothing else on those blanks!


(MediaTek MT1956 > TSSTcorp BDDVDW SE-506BB is how my drive identifies itself, the SE506BB is a samsung part number with two known firmware versions. I am still running the older one)

[robeti]

checking in

[Popmarter]

This can be very useful. Maybe a bit outdated, but you get the idea.

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/ca-academy/computer-audiophile-cd-ripping-strategy-and-methodology/

[morst]

This can be very useful. Maybe a bit outdated, but you get the idea.

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/ca-academy/computer-audiophile-cd-ripping-strategy-and-methodology/

that's a cool perspective, thanks for the link!

[robeti]

For the video tapers out there:
I was wondering how you archive your raw video masters.

Recently I purchased lifetime pCloud storage (10 TB) but that's about 100 shows in 4k quality.
I already have 350 shows or so that need archiving.

Right now I save them on 2 different external hard drives and M discs.

Any ideas?   

[guitard]

For the video tapers out there:
I was wondering how you archive your raw video masters.

Recently I purchased lifetime pCloud storage (10 TB) but that's about 100 shows in 4k quality.
I already have 350 shows or so that need archiving.

Right now I save them on 2 different external hard drives and M discs.

Any ideas?

I bought a NAS (networked attached storage).  It has four 16TB drives in it, and can store up to 42GB, even if one of the drives craps out.  Currently, I've got 26.5GBs stored in the NAS; so it will probably start getting close to full in a few years.  Maybe not.  Just depends on how many shows I go to.  But it doesn't really matter, because I can pull one of the four drives out and replace it with a (much?) larger drive anytime I want.  So, increasing storage is a relatively easy process.  And what happens if the NAS box itself craps out?  Just buy another NAS box, swap the drives, and voila - you're up and running again.  Another really nice thing is that I can transfer large files back and forth between my video editing work station computer (in my downstairs man cave) and the NAS (upstairs) at super fast speeds.  It probably helps that they are both hardwired to the router.  But I'm talking about transferring 80GBs of video in 15 minutes - going both ways.  I hope to work out an arrangement with a good friend or two where we have our NASes backed up with with each of the other NASes in a group.  As storage costs go down - that becomes more and more feasible.

Last thing on the NAS -- Thanks to my youngest son, I am pretty good at video editing and a few other things on the computer.  But I am in my 60s and definitely NOT a computer geek; especially when it comes to hardware.  So, I approached the whole NAS thing with a bit of trepidation.  But setting it up was ridiculously easy.  I literally just plugged the four drives into the drive bays in the NAS box, connected the power cord, connected the NAS to my internet router (with an RJ45 cable), and turned it on.  I watched a 15 minute Youtube video on how to set it up, and since then (July 2022), it has run flawlessly in the background.  FYI - the NAS box was $370 and the four drives were $820, for a total setup cost of $1,190.

I also back most of my collection to Backblaze.  And I keep everything backed up on 4 or 5TB external drives.

[fobstl]

For the video tapers out there:
I was wondering how you archive your raw video masters.

Recently I purchased lifetime pCloud storage (10 TB) but that's about 100 shows in 4k quality.
I already have 350 shows or so that need archiving.

Right now I save them on 2 different external hard drives and M discs.

Any ideas?

I bought a NAS (networked attached storage). 

guitard what are you using for the OS on your NAS? I'm looking at setting up a NAS with TrueNAS.

[guitard]

For the video tapers out there:
I was wondering how you archive your raw video masters.

Recently I purchased lifetime pCloud storage (10 TB) but that's about 100 shows in 4k quality.
I already have 350 shows or so that need archiving.

Right now I save them on 2 different external hard drives and M discs.

Any ideas?

I bought a NAS (networked attached storage). 

guitard what are you using for the OS on your NAS? I'm looking at setting up a NAS with TrueNAS.

I purchased a NAS made by Synology, and use the Synology software that came pre-installed; along with other "packages" I downloaded and installed while (watching that Youtube video and) setting it up.  I did some research and Synology seemed pretty reputable and easy to manage, so that's why I went that route.  Having said that, I have no experience whatsoever with any other NAS boxes.  So maybe I got lucky.  Or maybe there's something way better out there, but I just don't know it.

[fobstl]

For the video tapers out there:
I was wondering how you archive your raw video masters.

Recently I purchased lifetime pCloud storage (10 TB) but that's about 100 shows in 4k quality.
I already have 350 shows or so that need archiving.

Right now I save them on 2 different external hard drives and M discs.

Any ideas?

I bought a NAS (networked attached storage). 

guitard what are you using for the OS on your NAS? I'm looking at setting up a NAS with TrueNAS.

I purchased a NAS made by Synology, and use the Synology software that came pre-installed; along with other "packages" I downloaded and installed while (watching that Youtube video and) setting it up.  I did some research and Synology seemed pretty reputable and easy to manage, so that's why I went that route.  Having said that, I have no experience whatsoever with any other NAS boxes.  So maybe I got lucky.  Or maybe there's something way better out there, but I just don't know it.

Right on Guitard, thanks for the info!

[Datfly]

For those that use external HD's Costco has Seagate 14TB HD's for 149.00 That's an amazing price!

Everything I have is on duplicate hard drives. I always buy two at a time & transfer masters to both before erasing cards.
I run 4K video on 5 to 6 cameras & blow through 2 8TB HD's every month & a half.

https://www.youtube.com/user/datflys

[morst]

For those that use external HD's Costco has Seagate 14TB HD's for 149.00 That's an amazing price!

Been a long time since I bought a seagate, but this EDIT: WAS an heck of a deal!
Last best deal I saw was 16 TB WD external for $200, which a major retailer with the initials BB sold out of really quickly. . .

"out of stock"

[morst]

I bought a NAS (networked attached storage). 

guitard what are you using for the OS on your NAS? I'm looking at setting up a NAS with TrueNAS.

Oddly enough, I'll chime in that this line of discussion is off topic here!


NAS is an availability solution, not exactly a backup method!!


Personally I don't keep all my data online 24/7/365, but maybe you have better solar than we do?