Disk spanning (multiple dvds) archiving software, which one would you suggest?

ranjan2001

ranjan2001

Adept
I have heard about disk spanning software & saw one in demo with a software company which use to automatically write multiple dvds 1-1 in series.

I have to take 1.8TB data backup & would like to use this auto spanning of data by the software.

Which is the ideal software for doing so.

Have anybody used such software how reliable are they with data spanning over multiple dvds?

Update

found these 2 software but don't know how reliable are they?

http://hcidesign.com/dvdspan/

http://blog.swiftdisc.com/post/disc-spanning-how-to-burn-a-large-chunk-of-data-over-multiple-discs/

The one I saw in demo was Archive Creator but seems its no more available the company has stopped selling that.
 
Would it not make more sense to buy a 2TB external/internal drive and save time rather than burn data to multiple dvds?
 
I thought so but finally concluded that keeping the HD in computer is risky & costly, its better to have the data on dvds & keep it off line at different location. Moreover I don't need this data for daily use at all its only for record.

What do you say?

70dvds will cost me 8 times less than a 2TB harddrive.
 
I have many dvds that I use as backup, but at the same time, I don't have to write more than 2-3 DVDs at a time, so the process is painless. However, if it were 1TB of backup, I'd give up the idea of dvds as the time and effort taken would be immense. If it had been a continual process, it would be a no brainer, but given the sheer volume, I'd only suggest an HDD right now.

How do you figure it'll be 70 dvds btw? A dvd holds about 4.3GB of data, therefore 100 DVDs would equal 430GB, multiply that by 4 at least (cancelling out some data etc), to arrive near the 1.8 tb mark. See where I'm going? 400 DVDs would cost you (at 11 or 10.5 rupees for good media like verbatim) approximately 2200 rupees or more.

You end up saving half the money, but wasting a huge amount of time. Is it also worth mentioning the time you'd spend copying back all the data if ever needed? Your call.
 
ranjan2001 said:
I thought so but finally concluded that keeping the HD in computer is risky & costly, its better to have the data on dvds & keep it off line at different location. Moreover I don't need this data for daily use at all its only for record.

What do you say?

70dvds will cost me 8 times less than a 2TB harddrive.
Click to expand...
U can use ext HDD and keep your backup offline. And as said above, 1.8 tb would be lot more dvds to handle.

Sent from my GT-I5801 using Tapatalk
 
I agree with AK3D,an ext HDD would be better in terms of saving valuable time.Besides to write a DVD it would take around 10-15 min each ,so for over 400 DVDs(i.e.4000-6000 min) that's more than 3 days.Even 10 DVDs a day would take around 40 days.On top of that think about the power that would be used or wasted.

Its better to spend a little more and get a hard drive.
 
Seems I calculated it all wrong though I was counting 8.5 gb dual layer dvds.

HDD was in my mind before this but all I am getting in the market is WD green hdd which does not have good reviews & have considerable failure rate, the RMA takes a lot of time which puts me off from using wd hdd. I tried getting seagate but that is also not available in delhi market. The going price is 3700/- plus tax. Both these disk have lower 5400rpm rate than standard 7200rpm, a dealer told me that these are only meant for data storage.

Surely at that price its tempting but my concern is hdd going bad,if that happens what are my options? 2TB is a huge data to recover or take backup on another hdd. In my last 12 yrs I have seen many hdd going bad,but very less CDs/ DVDs gone bad, I would say only 0.2%-0.5%, since these dvds are stored in different room safely packed.

A dvds goes bad I only loose 8gb of data versus hdd will make it impossible to access the entire data. I have an old 160gb disk which is not detected by the OS at all, so you see now it needs hardware recovery support to get the data back though this is not an important data, I can loose it but I have no clue what all was there on this disk & I cant look at it, where as each dvd is labeled with the folders content.

Do you still favour hdd?
 
I used to keep data backed up on DVDs till about a year ago. It's just a big pain to keep burning on DVDs. HDDs are going really cheap and data size is increasing. IMO it doesn't make sense to use DVDs as backups anymore. Also, considering you have 1.8TB to back up, burning all that data on DVDs would be madness.
You can order Seagate LP drives online. They are much better than the WD green drives.

Another alternative is to use blu-rays to backup your data. But that would mean investing in a blu ray drive and sourcing blank blu-ray media. Considering it costs 200 bucks for 1 disc, the cost of media alone would be 14-15k plus additional 5k for a writer. :p

Using DVDs and a single hard drive would cost about the same. Around 4000 bucks for 5 spindles of dual layer and 3700 for a 2TB drive. IMO you should buy 2 2TB drives and keep one as a backup of the other.
 
ranjan2001 said:
A dvds goes bad I only loose 8gb of data versus hdd will make it impossible to access the entire data.
Click to expand...

If that is the case, get a pair of HDD's and copy the data to both of them. DVD is a one time backup only. For continuous backups, HDD's are your best bet in terms of cost(power + chances of ODD failure?), time (to burn so many discs + when you need to retrieve them, read from each disc!) and space ( you will burn quite a lot of DVDs, you will need to keep them somewhere)
 
So it seems that the consensus is to have another hdd for backup, I will go tomorrow to nehru place & checkout if I can get 2TB seagate hdd.
 
If you are planning this for business use, the best option would be a tape drive.

I heard that their reliability and convenience is better than other options.

And for enterprise usage, there is a software called Opentext Alchemy for archival and retrieval.

What is usage ? Home / SMB / Enterprise ?
 
Prole73 said:
If you are planning this for business use, the best option would be a tape drive.

I heard that their reliability and convenience is better than other options.

And for enterprise usage, there is a software called Opentext Alchemy for archival and retrieval.

What is usage ? Home / SMB / Enterprise ?
Click to expand...

And so is their retrieval time. Buddy, tape drives are almost dead. Advantage HDD is that he need not invest in new capex.
 
Prudent data backup strategies aim to cover all bases.I have recommended this on another thread and will recommend here again:

1.easiest and cost effective backup is to another hard drive for easy archiving and retrieval.e.g. i tb external drive costs about 3k. rs 3/gb. good backup media rs 12-15/dvd. so cost is not much of a factor.some ext 1 tb drives cost 2.6k-2.7k .

2.Assume a hard disk is going to fail.its a question of when.There was an extensive research paper by google on the reliability of S.M.A.R.T. data to predict drive failure.it is not reliable enough.the result of the finding was that failing disks have poor S.M.A.R.T. characteristics but a large no. of disks with good S.M.A.R.T. data also failed without warning.so they implemented their data storage strategies accordingly.Google is in the business of preserving the world's data.i trust their study more than those done by marketing departments of hard disk manufacturers.

3.Two hard disks are unlikely to fail together.

4.optical media backups are a proven technology.I can read 10 year old cd's just fine.in fact i recently converted my cd's to dvd's.

5.Optical media also protects against human error i.e. accidental drops magnetic exposure etc.

6.People in charge of archiving data prefer cd/dvd as compared to blue ray because it has been around a long time and is proven and mature.

7.SO WHAT IS IDEAL FOR BACKUP OF IMPORTANT DATA ( simple home use ):

a. A desktop with two identical drives configured as master/slave i.e. duplicate copies of each other including OS and all settings.Regular backups on the other hard drive.

b. An external hard drive for archiving and safe storage away from your primary pc.This is to protect from accidental damage to your primary pc or theft.

c. If you are using a laptop, use cloud storage i.e. gmail,windows skydrive for daily backup and backup to external drive as soon as possible. encrypt confidential data before backing up to the cloud.

d.REDUNDANT OPTICAL MEDIA BACKUPS FOR OFF SITE STORAGE.THIS IS IMPORTANT IF you really want to be sure.I prefer to use two different technologies for backups.you already have experience about their reliability.

e.Use software like norton ghost to clone your data disk and autospanning dvd backups.

f.flash media is also another option for bachups.many people use sd cards in their cameras like old school film.when one gets filled up copy contents to pc and keep sd card as back up.buy a new sd card to replace it.if stored properly flash media can provide reliable backups for 10 years.

g. IN SUMMARY MINIMUM TWO HARD DRIVES + OPTICAL MEDIA BACKUP OFFSITE= TENSION FREE backups available at your command.

P.S. its better to use desktop sized burners for optimal burns and scanning.lite on drives with meditek chipsets are considered best for reading optical discs and also better to scan your burns.always verify and scan your burns for reliability.
 
I feel tape drives are not going anywhere, at least in enterprise world. We should take a real world check if his data is business like and important tape drives may be viable option.

On a side note, My seagate 500GB hdd is out for RMA the 4th time. It may be a coincidence.

HDDs are good if you are backing up family photos or movies.
 
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