Q: Hard Drive

CaptH wrote:

 

@PlotinusVeritas

 

Out of curiousity, since you're the optical media proponent

Im a "protect your data at all costs" proponent.    has nothing to do with DVD vs. HD vs. etc etc.

Its not "A or B" ......its  "all of the above" 

and  nothing at all comes even CLOSE to the life of optical archival storage

CaptH wrote:

 

how do you tell when the optical drive itself isn't causing errors while it's writing data?

When you burn on Apples OSX (or really many other APPS) after the burn it will run "VERIFY" to verify the data is burned and correct.

CaptH wrote:

 

Do you just retire it after so many hours of use, or do you just wait until it can't write anymore?

The Panasonic made Superdrive (as used by Apple) is cheaper than dirt to replace.  They're $40 new from several outfits

DVD burners (quality ones) have become (for some time now) insanely cheap to replace.

I bought a Sony or Panasonic with an IDE interface new for about $25, but I suspect it's old inventory. I put it in a HUGE EZQuest FireWire enclosure that I had sitting around. The thing is enormous and the fans are louder than the DVD. It's sort of hysterical looking because the thing is larger than most laptop computers. It seems to work well though.

Out of curiousity, how does Blue Ray stack up to DVD and CD media in terms of reliability.

MrJavaDeveloper wrote:

Out of curiousity, how does Blue Ray stack up to DVD and CD media in terms of reliability.

A speck of dust you cant see can easily cover over a LARGE amount of data during the burn.

thats how.

also many (dare I say most) BluRay consumer-grade commercial burners are horribly unreliable.

R.K.Orion wrote:

 

combine the contents of this post into a book.

 

How about just a single picture?

(created at your request) 

click on picture to enlarge it.

Frequent data offloads to multiples devices, platforms, and locations ensures near-100% data protection

How about using iCloud to store some critical files? Is it not safe?

ThomasB2010 wrote:

 

How about using iCloud to store some critical files? Is it not safe?

Not unless you have a backup copy, not stored on your Mac or in iCloud.

PlotinusVeritas wrote:

 

A speck of dust you cant see can easily cover over a LARGE amount of data during the burn.

thats how.

 

also many (dare I say most) BluRay consumer-grade commercial burners are horribly unreliable.

I don't quite follow that comment. Basically you've said the same thing about commercial grade CD and DVDs, so is there  no professional grade BlueRay media available, and if so, how does it stack up to archival DVDs you've mentioned?

ThomasB2010 wrote:

 

How about using iCloud to store some critical files? Is it not safe?

I know it's been a few months but considering what's happened with "online security" over the past year, a better question, IMHO, is whether or not any online security is safe. You've read about the recent iCloud hacks, which appear to be more along the lines of user ineptness rather than security problems, but then you find out about huge breaches of millions of CCs at major stores and banks.

If this keeps up they're going to have to start doing things by paper again just to make sure some hacker can't get his hands on it.

There's no such thing as online security as far as I'm concerned.

Aren't the people ultimately responsible for most  security of any consequence the banking industry? You know, the industry that brought us the world economic collapse of 2008? The same industry that ships support and tech jobs once held here in the U.S. and Europe overseas to the cheapest place possible and then give themselves huge bonuses for ruining tens of thousands of live?

After having dealt with a fairly large banking company and seeing how reckless and careless they were, I'm now convinced, if you have an internet connection, just assume everything you're doing is public knowledge.

I am wondering if the BluRay consumer stuff is any better this year.

And I have so much dust flying around my home.

The character using the ID PlotinusVeritas has apparently left. There have been a lot of people putting down optical drives, but I think the bad reputation isn't really deserved.

Here's what just happened to us:

1. We created a bunch of training DVDs of various formats (DVD-R, DVD+R) in 2005.

2. We used these on a Panasonic DVD player to play them for about 4 hours a day. This wasn't a recorder, it was a player.

3. The Panasonic unit finally failed just a few days ago. None of the DVDs we've recorded have failed. None of them.

4. The Panasonic DVD failed because it can no longer spin up. We opened the unit up and you could get it to spin by touching it, but it couldn't maintain it.

Do the arithmetic: 10 years X 52 weeks/year X 4 hours/day X 5 days/week = 10,400 hours

The DVDs are still good. We got a new player and they still work  on it. I know R/W units fail quickly but read-only units have a long life. Just thought I'd throw that in for what it's worth.

As I think we stated before, the problem with optical drives is with the R/W units and the lasers burning out after only a few thousand hours of use. The problem is that you don't necessarily know when they're burning out, so how do you even know the data being written is correct. Read-only units like the one you just described historically last a long time. By your own account the spindle motor died, not the laser, after ten years of use. If that had been a R/W unit I guarantee you that if you tried to use it that much it would have been gone within a year. It's the nature of the beast.

PlotinusVeritas wrote:

 

San Lewy Sunny California, U.S. of A. 

You are aware that Hitachi (known as Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and HGST Inc) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Digital Company?

 

Yes and no, mostly yes in whole, in specific, NO

 

WD owns them, but Hitachi is still doing "its thing" quality wise and research etc. including the recently released helium filled HD ,  they were forced to sell of their 3.5" division to Toshiba

 

So, Hitachi 3.5" made drives, marked Toshiba, but owned by WD thru Hitachi. 

 

So if you get a 3.5" Toshiba drive, youre getting one that is "owned and marked by Toshiba, made by Hitachi (equip and design) which is owned by WD"

 

So, there are still Hitachi HD, though it is owned by WD.   Full assimilation of Hitachi into WD will take many many years.

 

So you can get Hitachi design, quality etc etc, and it still be a "Hitachi HD", ....though still owned by WD

 

So, though owned by WD, it is quasi autonomous to "do what it does best"  

 

That A owns B, doesnt mean that B is "the same as A", rather financially connected, rather than quality and design.   That may come in a few years however.

 

 

boring detailed specfics are here:

http://www.storagereview.com/

 

 

I know this post is old, but I visited the SanDisk site and they're either in the process of, or they've already been acquired by Western Digital. It should be interesting to see the path WD takes.