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

[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.