Blank DVD-Rs - Any ones you don't trust?

[stayathomedad]

Mods - please let me know if this should be posted elsewhere...

Question - I need to pick up some more DVD-R disks... Since I had plenty over the last 2 years, I haven't had to buy any for quite some time. Are there any brands I should stay away from? I was thinking of going to Costco and getting their 100 pack of TDKs DVD-Rs...

Thoughts?

 

[jaymc]

I haven't had any luck with Maxell, but I think it depends on your writer. Have had great luck with the store brand of Office Depot ... $19.99 for 100 DVDs when on sale!

 

[little big man]

I had a spindle of TDKs at work that were great. I have some HP right now that are working well too - the only bad ones I've had were some Memorex, gold color. They ended up making good frisbees.

Sean

 

[jafo]

If you want something that will last as long as possible (so called "archival quality"), then you only want one brand, Taiyo Yuden. Are you backing up your photos to these DVDs? If so then you want something that will be around in 20+ years. Go with Taiyo Yuden.

You can get them very cheap at meritline or supermediastore.

 

[stayathomedad]

I'm not worried about archival quality because in 5-10 years I won't be using DVDs to store my data... just as we don't use zip drives, jaz drives, or super floppies any more...

Just look at what's coming down the pipe in less then two years - http://www.geek.com/hitachi-sets-sights-on-5-tb-drive-in-2010-20080704/

I highly doubt that 4.7GB will be much of anything 20+ years from now...

Look at what was happening in 1988 - http://www.islandnet.com/~KPOLSSON/comphist/comp1988.htm

Now apply that towards 20 years from now... It's unimaginable to comprehend the power and storage space we will have access to by then.

:smile:

 

[jafo]

You don't think you'll be able to backup those 5TB drives to optical media do you? Of course you don't, since you know that won't be cost effective. Optical media is always behind the game...

However, I do believe DVDs will be playable in our computers for a VERY VERY long time to come. Just as we'll be able to play CDs. Any future optical drives will likely support these formats.

So, do you want to have to worry about backing up all your media again to archival quality optical discs, or do you want to do it just once? Up to you...

 

[Dr A]

Memorex - the very worst I've ever had. In fact, they are the only discs that I've ever had even the slightest problems with.

 

[williadw]

Well...

So.. you are using these DVD-R's for archival purposes?

Maybe you should try online backups, with one of the more popular online companies. It is not that expensive and no limit to the amount of disk space.

I used to backup my pictures to dvd.. but no more. I have all my pictures on a photo website and do online backups for my data and pictures. No more sitting in front of my PC burning DVDs for hours.

Don.

 

[Khaisy]

I have using TDK from Costco not a problem at all, I must have used around over 350. the only one that i had issues were memorex. stay away from these

 

[jmmtn4aj]

\Maybe you should try online backups, with one of the more popular online companies. It is not that expensive and no limit to the amount of disk space.\

Any recommendations? The only problem with online backups is that home upload speeds usually suck

 

[williadw]

Sure

I use Carbonite and originally backup up 25 gigs of data/pictures/etc.

It took 4 days at cable modem speeds to do the initial backup, but once that was done.. it just sits there and monitors whatever you add to the directories you have told it to backup.

It doesn't seem to cause a problem running in the background.

Any recommendations? The only problem with online backups is that home upload speeds usually suck

 

[jafo]

I don't disagree that an online backup solution is good. But it shouldn't be your only solution. Nothing beats having the data physically, whether it's on an optical disc or hard drive. Websites come and go... I would not put all my eggs in one basket. If you upload your photos to a photo sharing website and that ends up being your only copy, that is a really bad idea in my opinion. The more copies of the data, the better.

 

[NaOH]

I use Verbatim. I've read online over and over they're the best of the mid-range brands.

 

[David_N]

Strange, I've gone through over 500 Memorex discs and never had a problem... Mind you, I also use DVD+R, but it's still strange to hear they have a bad reputation.

 

[NaOH]

They have a terrible rep. You've been lucky.

I was just going through my photo back ups on CD/DVD and transfering them to a USB hard drive. Disks were between 1 and 5 years old and I had three bad disks (partial losses) out of about 20. All the Vebatims were fine.

Strange, I've gone through over 500 Memorex discs and never had a problem... Mind you, I also use DVD+R, but it's still strange to hear they have a bad reputation.

 

[williadw]

Yes

I totally agree with you on this. I do photo backups on a website and also do carbonite and have a duplicate backup to an external USB drive. I don't do CDs/DVDs. The only advantage I see as a big plus... is if your house burns down...you are robbed.. or your dog decides to chew up your cd/dvd backups.. you have somewhere outside your house to grab a backup.

I don't disagree that an online backup solution is good. But it shouldn't be your only solution. Nothing beats having the data physically, whether it's on an optical disc or hard drive. Websites come and go... I would not put all my eggs in one basket. If you upload your photos to a photo sharing website and that ends up being your only copy, that is a really bad idea in my opinion. The more copies of the data, the better.