Lester Tradelbloom
(K=3291) - Comment Date 12/20/2004
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Hi Mark,
I have just looked over your portfolio, very nice work! Ok, to the point; I am a photography student from Townsville, Australia. I have been doing digital work for about a year now and was constantly saving and transporting information from the Power Mac G5 labs at uni, to my digital darkroom here at home. As a uni student, cash doesn't come my way too often, so I had to get by as cheaply as possible because, lets face it, 1 gig of data can't be downloaded that quickly.
So I went to the closest discount chain store and bought 500 blank CD-R's.
Now my year is over, and I never had the slightest bit of trouble with a single disk. That said, if you are looking for long-term storage of your files, I would go for the highest possible quality disks to ensure compatibility in a few years time. Think of ot like archiving prints - you wouldn't print with cheap chemicals and low quality paper - you'd want the best, to last the longest. Why should digital files be treated any differently.
Hope I helped a little,
- Justin
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tom rumland
(K=14874) - Comment Date 12/20/2004
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mark, i just went through this recently and i found that what justin says is true. except it's truer than he thinks. i recently got a new external FW drive and wanted to dump my old archives into it in order to maximise the use of space in DVD-R's. so i proceeded to copy all my CD-R archives into the drive and to my dismay, i couldn't read all of them!! i had trouble with 3 out of 20 or so. and these discs were no more than 2 years old! (is it real? or is it memorex? ha!) luckily i was able to recover them using another machine. this experience made me do some research regarding the longevity of CD- and DVD-R's. what i found is that there are differences. mostly in manufacturing quality. i found this company: http://www.mam-a.com/Default.htm which makes archival quality storage media. not cheap, but not expensive either.
what i do now, in order to maximize my use of these discs and still be able to use "regular" media is the following:
1- use "regular" media (the stuff that comes in spindles of 500 for almost nothing) in the field. only to give yourself a backup in case something happens to your laptop on the way home. i call this my working backup and contains shots from a single trip/outing.
2- once at home, i dump the contents into my hard drive (which i backup very regularly) and make a copy. the copy goes into a separate directory and is never worked on.
3- when enough images to fill a DVD-R have been accumulated in the copy directory, i then copy it onto an archival DVD-R from MAM.
4- the archival DVD goes into a safe. currently at my home but i'm actively looking for another place to store this archive.
hope this helps,
tom
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Mark Beltran
(K=32612) - Comment Date 12/21/2004
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Justin, you have a point there. Why risk it on cheap discs. And thanks for looking through my portfolio; I'm glad you like it.
Tom, your method of backing up both the HD and DVD you can't go wrong. Thank you both.
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Margaret Dean
(K=230) - Comment Date 12/21/2004
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Hey I was just talking about this with a friend yesterday. I have had corrupt disks and unreadable disks. Lucky for me I scan from negs and will always have the original neg to go back to in the event of a disaster. But I still don't want to lose my master images and start again. But what I really wanted to say ws be careful with the pen you use to write on the CDs. Make sure it is a proper CD marker. Normal markers apparently will eat through a CD and make it unreadable in just a few years. Eck! I now have to go back and copy all my disks onto archival CDs because I was too lazy to buy a proper marker.
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Mark Beltran
(K=32612) - Comment Date 12/22/2004
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A marker will eat through a cd? Wow, thanks for the info, Margaret. I use Sharpie markers. Are these okay?
So far, with these cheapie discs, I haven't had any bad ones (yet). But I'm asking for CD-R's for Christmas, so wish me luck.
Mark
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Larry Hammond
(K=16631) - Comment Date 12/22/2004
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Hi Mark
Have read thru your thread, I plan on getting back into weddings and want to be able to offer CD/DVD, and so want to know proper marker also..I too use Sharpies, wasn't aware something like this could happen...so I will be checking back to see if anybody comments on the Sharpies.
Happy Holidays!!
Larry
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Mark Beltran
(K=32612) - Comment Date 12/22/2004
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Larry; thanks for commenting. Another option would be to use those CD-R's that are printable, so that markers wouldn't have to be used. But then you'd have to have a printer that does this. My Epson R300, for example. And also, there are round stickers that you affix to the top of the CD-R for labeling.
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Diabo
(K=2080) - Comment Date 1/8/2005
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CDs are written from the center outwards, so if you're not sure about the predatory properties of your marker, label your disks on the edge, at a safe distance from the part that holds the data.
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Michael Kanemoto
(K=22115) - Comment Date 1/31/2005
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Mark:
The only problem I have ever had way buying +R discs for a -R recorder. Just make sure you get discs that line up to your burner, plus or minus, as well as for the player you want to eventually use if you want a DVD or CD player and you should be OK.
You can goole to see if the plus or minus is the standard for the major market players.
Michael
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[[dead account]]
(K=6692) - Comment Date 2/4/2005
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I've been screwed by cheap CDRs over the years.
My recommendation would be to invest in a 250g b portable hard drive and only use it for archiving and nothing else.
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Peter Daniel
(K=33866) - Comment Date 4/7/2005
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Here's a sight that might help you with your question...
http://www.cdrfaq.org/
Thanks, Peter
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Alejandra Figueroa
(K=849) - Comment Date 4/26/2005
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Hi mark,
I work at a museum and we use MAM-A Archival CD-R's. If I am not mistaken, it's the standard CD-R for photos and digitized archival material. I just purchased some from datamediastore.com
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Eveline Shih-Pitcairn
(K=4406) - Comment Date 7/6/2005
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From Peter Daniel's recommended link:
Subject: [7-4-1] What's the best brand of media?
(2003/07/08)
As noted in (7-4), there is no guarantee that brand X will be the absolute best in recorder Y. However, some brands are recommended more often than others. It does pay to be brand-conscious.
Brands most often recommended: Mitsui, Kodak, Taiyo Yuden, and TDK. Sometimes Pioneer and Ricoh. It appears that HP, Philips, Sony, Yamaha, and Fuji use these manufacturers for most of their disks. (Kodak no longer manufactures media.)
Brands that are often trashed: Maxell, Verbatim, Memorex, Ritek, Hotan, Princo, Gigastorage, Lead Data, Fornet, CMC Magnetics. Many "no-name" bulk CD-Rs are one of these brands.
Sometimes a particular line of discs from a particular manufacturer or reseller will be better than others from the same company. For example, Verbatim DataLifePlus discs are recognized as pretty good, but Verbatim ValuLife are seen as being of much lower quality.
Sometimes company names change. For example, in June 2003 Mitsui Advanced Media was purchased from Mitsui Chemicals by Computer Support Italcard (CSI) of Italy to form MAM-A, Inc.
The country of manufacture may also be significant. Some manufacturers maintain plants in different countries, and don't always maintain the same level of quality.
In humid tropical climates, care must be taken to find discs that stand up to the weather. One user reported that the data layer on Sony CDQ 74CN discs began cracking after a couple of months in an otherwise sheltered environment (e.g. no direct sunlight). Mitsubishi CD-R 700 and Melody 80 Platinum discs fared much better.
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Timothy Yap
(K=997) - Comment Date 9/21/2005
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Just wanted to add that you should be cautious using the stick on cd/dvd labels as they can cause the cd/dvd to heat up which in turn heats up the cd/dvd player to the point where it has to cool down to work. Not sure whether it was just the types of labels I used but I won't be touching them again. (It happened in a top end dvd player).
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Gene Zonis
(K=6949) - Comment Date 11/10/2005
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E-Film makes a "gold" CD-R with a life of 300 years.Can we send them back if they only last 150?
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Jeroen Wenting
(K=25317) - Comment Date 12/21/2005
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It's so easy to make such marketing statements when they know full well noone will notice if they don't last more than a few decades at most ;)
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dal mandle
(K=1484) - Comment Date 1/1/2006
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Tushit Jain
(K=1697) - Comment Date 1/7/2006
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Have you checked if there are any websites that will save and backup info for you? They could very well run servers with 3 or 4 backup harddisks. With a good enough Internet connection at home.. this solution may be nice for you.
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Rom A.G.
(K=0) - Comment Date 2/8/2006
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I could tell no difference between brands.
I think they are all made in China in the same factory,
and then labels are slapped on them with the various brand
names. Thus you end up paying $1/Sony CDR, and 0.14c/KHypermedia.
I bought these at J&R in NYC:
TDK
10 pack(box no frills; w/jewel cases) $4
30 pack spindle(no jewel cases) 80min 700mb 52x - $6(0.20c each)
Khypermedia
100 pack spindle 700mb 52x - $15(0.15c each)
50 pack spindle - $7(0.14c each)
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Ann Nida
(K=45248) - Comment Date 3/2/2006
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Hi Mark,
I would highly recommend investing in an external hard drive.
I had all my photos backed up on CD's until I finally had so many I could never find anything I was looking for even though I had an as well as I could make filing system. Imagine the hundreds of images you can store on one CD then multiply that by dozens and that's probably your average photographers storage needs.
As well as CD's being hard to sift through to find what you are looking for I also found that labelling them was a big mistake as the labels expand and contract in varying temperatures causing some of the labels to wrinkle then they won't play on a CD player because they are unbalanced.
I was fortunate enough to be over zealous and backed up my backups multiple times so if I found CD's that didn't work I had them backed up on others and also had access to 3 different computers so what may not have worked on one or 2 CD drives worked on another. That's not a method I would recommend as it's very time consuming.
You can buy special marker pens for safe use on CD's.
My advice for what it's worth is, for the short term, by all means, back up on CD's but DO NOT use stick on labels and as soon as you can afford one buy an external hard drive to back up all your work. It's also really easy to find and view your work and easy to use.
Cheers and good luck from Ann :)
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john Cambece
(K=188) - Comment Date 5/31/2006
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i get mass amounts of cd-r in bulk boxes of over 1000...i dont know if thats what you would want though
Cambece
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Jennifer Jones
(K=-505) - Comment Date 10/14/2006
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Just wanted to comment on the Sharpie question. I use Sharpie's to label my CD/DVD's that are specifically designed for such use. They're called "Sharpie CD Marker" and you can find them at most stores that sell office DVD's such as Staples, Best Buy, etc.
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Joe Johnson
(K=8529) - Comment Date 2/27/2007
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I don't see a problem with the markers said to be for CD use. Labels seem to present various problems. I prefer inkjet printable from Taiyo Yuden, which is the only Japanese manufacturer I believe. Others would insist upon hard wax thermal prints (full color, of course). I like the Taiyo Yuden because they have hub-printable CDs, and the MAM injket CDs are not. In addition, the MAM are almost one dollar per disk. And there isn't any way they can prove their 100-300 year life until these CDs have been around for some time. I suspect that the Taiyo Yuden will last more than a few years, by themselves. Fifty years from now, it may not be important to have a CD or DVD collection. It may not need to last 100 years - maybe not even 10. We'll see.
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April Andy
(K=50) - Comment Date 10/20/2009
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hi...
well, 500 blank CD-R's. 
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