DVD backup

[drcpunk]

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to get writable DVDs to back up my hard drive. One of them holds 4.7 gigs, which is pretty cool by me.

I went to the Staples on 6th, in the 20s, and picked up a pack. I asked a woman who worked at Staples if I had the correct item. She told me that I did not. CDs were for backing up computer data. DVDs were just for videos, movies, and the like. I put the DVDs back, reasoning that she was the trained professional, as crash_mccormick might have put it, and that it really didn't make sense, after all, for me to be able to buy 25, or even 50, 4.7 gig DVDs that could do what I wanted for less than the price of a single 1 gig SD card.

But, I can. mnemex pointed out that crash_mccormick uses DVDs for his back ups, and he confirmed this. So, I went to another Staples and bought a pack, and did my back up. Sure, I love the tiny SD cards, but they are quite expensive by comparison.

Comments

[avram]

We use DVDs for backup at work. Bits is bits. That woman didn’t know what she was talking about.

[kyrielle]

Yeah. That woman is frighteningly incompetent for where she works. Why she thought CDs can handle data (as well as music) but DVDs can't (as well as movies), no idea...but wow. I boggle. A lot.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but she was quite convinced. She was also convinced that I needed to check to see if I needed + or - cds, I think -- if this sounds not merely wrong, but from Mars, I'm likely misremembering. This was a week or two before Intercon F, and I had a lot of other things in my head. (Evil mail merge. Evil Microsoft. Evil Non-Microsoft. Pronouns. Envelopes. Spreadsheets....)

[kyrielle]

Actually, that one she's not totally nuts on. For the DVD format, there are DVD+ and DVD- formats. The - can play (if you put movies on them) in a standard VCR and is the more common format. The + is the less common. I gather they can be a double and hold twice as much data but to be honest I don't REALLY understand them. I just know they are two formats. Some (but not all) computer DVD read/write can handle both, but the DVD- seems to be the safer format because more drives read that only than DVD+ only.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Quelle twit, she.

You might wish to check your DVD burner to see if it can handle dual-layer discs; they hold twice as much data. The drive I will be installing this week does (which, considering the amount I want to back up, is a Very Good Thing, Indeed :-)

[mylescorcoran]

The woman in Staples was talking through her arse, as we say in this neighbo(u)rhood. Data is data, and bits are bits.

The SD card is okay for data that changes regularly and has to be at hand; CD/DVD storage is better for backups that get made and then sit static until you need to recover the data.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm sure the woman meant well and really believed what she was saying, but it was annoying.

The reason I believed her was that, well, it seemed like DVD back ups were too cheap to be true. But yes, I see the distinction between "This just sits and is a back up, or transfers stuff once between computer A and computer B, and then sits" and "Okay, we're modifying a bunch of files on a daily basis", as was the case with the larps we ran.

[jl8e]

Believe the trained professionals. (or at least consider their words)

The low-wage, under-trained retail clerks? Not so much. Especially in a general-purpose store such as Staples, where the employees can hardly be expected to be knowledgeable about everything they sell.

Anyway, one can buy entire hard disks for less than the price of a 1G SD card.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

I know. But portability becomes an issue.
Hm. My desktop can't read the DVDs. This is mildly annoying. Still, there are other methods of getting the data on there.