Folders full of CDs and DVDs are bloody hard to maintain, especially the larger folders.

Big awkward and clumsy, disks slide out:

http://www.whitedog.co.uk/catalog/images/cd_320_storage.jpg



I find the 2 per page type small folders are OK since they will fit in a magazine holder, you can get these are most $2 shops for about $4.

The images I have here are from a set done up in nice leather - the ones you get from $2 shops have gay designs on them, but they still do the job, and fit in a standard cardboard magazine folder like you'd get from Big-W or Officeworks.

http://www.shop4tech.com/photos/item-7136-6-500.jpg

http://www.shop4tech.com/photos/item-7136-2-500.jpg


Not bad but it still seems like it takes up more space than it should.


I am considering also giving this method a go:

The TDK 'filing drawer pack'

http://www.pcsuperstore.com.au/images/products/product12345_1_081205164440.jpg

Each disc is in a white sleeve filed in the box.

Seems like it would have some advantages over the folder method, like being able to easily flick through the discs without turning pages, and then it would be easier to rearrange them and put them back in. Except that I always forget to buy this when I need blank discs.


What methods do you use?

I am progressively getting rid of all disks.

A big backed up hardrive is my preferred method for audio cd's. Car has USB connection so the actual disk itself is pretty redundant.

I'd still buy a CD, just rip and store.

Even DVD's are becoming redundant for back-up as the 'only' hold ~4.5gig

I have 2 x steel cases that hold 600 cds each, they kinda hang like manilla folders hang in your drawers at work

they're super gay, trying to find 1 x dvd in 1200 is a stupid+ idea
buy a large raid array
then buy another one
back them up to each other and move them off site

it's cheaper and easier when you factor in the price of 1200 dvds and the posibility of losing just one that is important from a big set

I'm moving off DVD's to HDD based now. Drives are cheap and I'm over burning s***. WHS + Heap of Storage = win I'd say. Not fool proof but it will do.

yeh i was thinking about buying one of these especially for work... deals direct normally have them on special
http://www.discstakka.com/

i have a steel case like teq, however mine only holds around about 100 discs. i have other important stuff in it aswell. it also comes with a lock and key.

this is pretty much exactly what it look like

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/supermediastore/200Aluminumcase.gif

last edited by ravn0s at 13:11:35 21/Sep/09

I have one like ravn0s and teq. I'm still in the 'DVD for back-up' stage. I clearly don't deal with the ridiculous amounts of linux isos that you guys seem to. Everything that is worth backing up for me at the moment is 35GB.

I have specifically been trained never to use Hard Drives for storage, as they are a mechanical device that WILL eventually f*** up, and also magnetic storage has flaws that build up into errors over the years just from the natural magnetic field.

I will consider the costs of redundant storage and replacing/maintaining disks in the array. I don't like the idea that if I'm not there to replace the drives the whole concept fails. This means the data will only last as long as I am competent enough to maintain it. No time capsule of data for my grandkids, for example.

I have specifically been trained never to use Hard Drives for storage, as they are a mechanical device that WILL eventually f*** up, and also magnetic storage has flaws that build up into errors over the years just from the natural magnetic field.

Umm, optical disks (ESPECIALLY burned ones) have a shelf life and are much more prone to environmental damage. I've lost a lot more data over the years due to f***ed up DVD-Rs than drive failure.

We have a NAS at home with a few RAID drives. It goes good, and we can take a random drive failure on the chin.

There is stuff that I would feel like necking myself if we lost, like family photos and s***. For that stuff we have a USB hard drive that I backup to regularly and store offsite at the in-laws. Anything that gets through that is gonna f*** me up regardless.

Years ago i collected a lot of "Linux ISOs". Ended up with 10 folders of CDs (about 2000) and 6 folders of DVDs (just over 200).

Started with 4 per page 100ish folders then got some 2 per page 100ish folders. For the DVDs i went to 4 per page 200ish folders.

Then about 4 years ago i got a big P180 case and started putting HDDs in it. Over the next year or 2 i ended up with 10 HDDs (about 4TB worth) and copied everything from the CDs/DVDs over (that took a while and about 10% would not copy (due to being old and poorly made).

Last month i got a QNAP TS-409 Pro NAS box and 4 1.5TB drives. Raided it with RAID5 so i still only had about 4.2TB but now it was smaller/quieter/reliable.

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=85

Spent the last few weeks copying everything over.

Still have the CDs/DVDs in folders in 55L containers in garage as a last resort backup if stuff gets lost. And i will keep old file server for at least 6months to make sure new is stable. Then maybe sell it to a friend who wants 4TB of files.

CDs/DVDs are ok for general collecting but be careful on getting decent brands. Eventually all of them will fail as the material degrades but if they are decent brands and kept in a decent place (good climate, no direct sunlight) then they should last years at least.

Me personally, i will be staying with HDDs and RAID. Until the next big storage method comes along (no, not blu-ray, thats no different to DVD).

i recently put all my cd backups back onto hdd... about 120 cds worth of old crap. that's only a max of about 90gb. i never got big into dvd backups as i figured it wouldn't be long before hdd backups would be more economical. fyi... of the 120cds.. 4 were unreadable, 11 lost data but i got some data off them.

these days i do the work, friends & family data backups... ie: i copy stuff i really wouldn't want to lose onto my work computer (which is backed up everynight to magnetic tape & offsite hdd) & my old man's computer which is raid backed-up & to a few friends hdds. i also do the same for my old man & friends n backup thier data.

i don't bother backing s*** up i download... the internet is the backup! :D

i have the leather looking ones, they are pretty good
also get some raid.

if you were serious about backups you'd be using tape drives
buy 10-15 x 800gb tapes and backup every day, then once per week, then once per month and keep a few spare tapes just in case

We really need to build some shelving for all the DVD movies we own. All the 'linux iso' type things I've put onto an old PC I had laying around, I threw a few TB worth of drives in and works great. I can watch said iso's in the lounge or bedroom using either a Mediagate or a Win7 MCE box.

I just found burning CD's and DVD's was useless to me, I'd chuck it in the corner and never look at it again.

drives are big enough these days that you can buy a raid array of say 4TB and know that your data is at least 70% secure

it wont be lost if you have a drive failure, it wont even be lost if you had a severe operating system failure
however in the event of fire/flood whatevs, it might be lost

for the few terabytes of "linux isos" i have stored on the local network that get shared between the lounge rooms and bedrooms / tivo boxes etc, drives are perfectly fine

for photos that are irreplaceable etc, I upload copies to multiple locations around the world

"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it."

Mantis where did you buy that?

was it about $800 ? What made you buy it over a umart 300 dorrah 4-bay raid one?

last edited by thermite at 16:48:09 21/Sep/09

I gotta agree with the HDD option. Buy 750GB disks which doesn't cost much more than the equivalent number of DVDs, and buy an external SATA drive dock. Then just don't actually keep them powered, which also greatly extends their life.

Hard Drives are the way to go man.

I am going to build me a nice file server when I get home :)

when you say file server, do you mean just a cheap computer? I don't know whether I should be looking at a cheap raid peripheral, or building a computer, or NAS. I like raven's idea of just backing up to an external drive and leaving it off. Using HDD's never entered my mind as a serious option because of what I was told at school, but I have indeed encountered s***loads of problems with burnt DVD discs.

I also don't have a media PC like many of you do, simply because my TV has no inputs for fancy things except my VCR, which in turn can accept either a Wii or DVD player but not both, lol. It seems as though we are all forced to buy a new TV before the end of the year so this will be a whole new world of possibility for me too.

Perhaps I could kill two birds and make a media pc and file server as one thing and stick it near the telly.

It would still be more convenient than getting off my arse and searching through that big folder with discs sliding around everywhere. Burning the discs in the first place takes up a LOT of my time too as I generate massive AVI files in some of my projects, and also download a lot of document files too. I have also transferred ALL my VHS tapes onto DVD discs TWICE - once as mpeg video DVD and once as AVI data DVDs which again, are plentiful.





last edited by thermite at 18:16:12 21/Sep/09

This thread has made me want to get a NAS/file/media/whatever server. Time to do some research.

ok you do the research and post it right here :P

Yah, I to would be interested.

I was going to get an external NAS thingo, everyone seems to be raving about a Thecus n7700 although they are ~1300 plus drives, so you'd be looking at 2k to fill it with 1 or 1.5tb drives

Do it any way you want. If you want a pretty little box that was built to do it with hardware inside made specifically for it then do it. If you don't mind having an ugly old PC box laying around somewhere go that way, it's what I did, never see the box. Probably look into a hardware raid card or motherboard with raid onboard though over software just in case.

I originally used folders, then moved on to boxes, then to draws.

I haven't burnt a dvd to file away in any of them for a long time now. It's all on HD.

I saw these external usb/esata drive boxes today. $200. (Hotway, HF2-SU2S2). They take four sata and have quiet cooling. So for $600 you can have 3TB raid 5 (4x1TB segates for $105/drive). That's a lot of burning, labeling and filing away I don't have to do for negligible cost over the price of reasonable quality blank dvds - and the data will be far more accessible even if I leave it turned off.

And the thing with them is that is so cheap that when you fill it, you just buy another.

last edited by natslovR at 21:57:30 21/Sep/09

Thanks for the pressure thermite.

This is the only thing I've found, I haven't really looked into it: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1278852.

thanks, theres some good advice for building a file server there now I'll have to cross reference that with information about building a media centre.

I still like the idea of one of those external devices that lets you hot swap the drives. I probably don't really need that but isn't that just god damn great!

last edited by thermite at 22:27:26 21/Sep/09

I'd probably keep the media centre and data storage seperate. I wouldn't like sandwiching a PC into an entertainment unit with 4+ HDD's in it.

Arr double post. It won't let me edit my last post.

Graysonline are having a big storage auction atm.

i don't bother backing s*** up i download... the internet is the backup! :D

Thats my theory too. All the linux iso's i've downloaded get quickly deleted after installation and prompt removal. Every now and again i like to look back at some of the earlier revisions and they are there still hosted for download again.

thermite, i got it from Umart and it was about $800. Ended up spending around $1400 for it and the 4 drives. Certainly a lot cheaper than what i spent building the previous file server. HDDs just get cheaper and cheaper.

What $300 one are you referring to? Could not see a 4-bay raid one for that price.

I got that one because it looked like a solid product. Wanted RAID5, 4 bay, gigabit. Also liked the look of it's interface (awesome easy to use silverlight type interfact) and the fact it has a built in Torrent client (added bonus).

I am very happy with it so far. Was super easy to setup, can barely hear it and looks nice. No issues with it yet. Would recommend the TS-409 Pro.

+1 NAS (+ Tape for offsite backup).

I only found these two at umart:
proraid: http://umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=93&bid=2&sid=47229
noontech: http://umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=93&bid=2&sid=47747

Doesn't say if they have to be connected to a computer - or if they ARE a computer.

thermite
those are just external hard drive encolsures with inbuilt raid functionality - no network port, therefore they fail.

i've just been through this with my boss

you want a thecus n7700 kgo
don't buy a drobo either

oh ok, they've put NAS devices under the "network" section. They're pretty exy - don't see how the cost is justified over building your own machine.

+1 for thecus n7700 or build up a box and use freenas providing the gear is on the HCL.

For storage I have a WHS box with 4 x 1tb drives in it and folder duplication is turned on for important stuff like photos and harder to replace stuff like music.

Since my daughter was born I've decided there's no way I want to lose any pictures/videos of her so I'm going to build another box to put out in the garage (it's detached from the house, I figure it's safe enough from fire/theft). This one doesn't need to have as much space as I'll only need enough space to back up the important stuff.

Also considering online backup like jungledisk - we use it for a few clients at work and it seems to be pretty good.

I have spent a lot of time on this and looked at numerous options - building a NAS, buying a 4 bay DAS, getting a hot-swap backplane and hacking it into a sexy little case with a micro-ITX board, and there is simply no economical way to set this up.
You would need to have almost 10 Terrabytes of magnetic storage for under $800 before it becomes cheaper than the price of using burnt DVDs. That's not even considering the extra electricity, and having to replace broken hard drives.

The simplest solution, trying to cram 4 x 1.5TB extra hard drives and a raid card into my existing computer, would cost about $800, with redundancy it would give me less than 3 TB of space.
For $800 I could buy two thousand one hundred and five (2105) blank 4.7GB DVDs at 38 cents each from Dick Smith - that's almost 10 terrabytes.

I get more than 3 times the storage using blank DVDs for the same price - and I never have to make a 'massive outlay' I just buy the DVDs as I need.

If you think hard drive space is almost as cheap as DVD blanks - you are dreaming!!!



last edited by thermite at 13:46:58 30/Sep/09

What about the time it takes you to burn all those DVDs? Even with a quick burner it'll take you 210hrs to burn that much data, and thats just the burning time. Not to mention the life expectancy of the DVDs, guarenteed you'll want to be reburning them in 5 years time.

last edited by Mass at 13:59:21 30/Sep/09

and if you think dvd's have anywhere near the same usability as a hdd you're sorely mistaken. and the WORM setup of DVD's is a sure-fire setback for starters. Everything has HDDs simply because they're the best.

i just bought a caddy with a 1tb disk in it;

im just gonna copy my s*** to that and store it elsewhere

$100 solution

I'd consider this - looks like you get two hard drives included with it? It would be misleading if they aren't supplied.
http://gamedude.com.au/prod_show.php?art_no=hddWDmyb_2tb_mirror
I could only find it at gamedude, can't find it in any stores closer to Brisbane.
This would be a baby step into the world of hard drive storage for me, rather than a massive lifestyle choice.

last edited by thermite at 14:27:31 30/Sep/09

I'd consider this - looks like you get two hard drives included with it? It would be misleading if they aren't supplied.
http://gamedude.com.au/prod_show.php?art_no=hddWDmyb_2tb_mirror
I could only find it at gamedude, can't find it in any stores closer to Brisbane.

Yes they come with drives included. If you mirror it (RAID 1) you only get 1TB, but if go with RAID 0 then you get 2TB but of course no redundancy. They're pretty good, I got the 1TB RAID 0/500GB RAID1 model. You can also get a NAS version of that WD which you can obviously hooked up to your switch directly.

Oh I found it at Umart in perhaps the 4th or 5th section they have with hard drive related stuff... preorder :/ pfft

edit: ok I've preordered it. It's like $50 more than at gamedude - but that's $50 spent on not driving to woop woop and standing in a queue for 2 hours.

last edited by thermite at 14:50:33 30/Sep/09


Network features not needed as frankly the idea of having my data available to a network scares teh s*** out of me.



last edited by thermite at 14:51:54 30/Sep/09

Yeah it's no surprise it's on back order, that WD drive is pretty popular for mid-low end as far as DAS/NAS for mums and pops out there.

You're so full of s*** - typical mums and pops don't need to store any data, know what an external hard drive even is, let alone have need for a NAS or Raid setup. The primary data backup system at my last work (a web company) was a $100 nexstar caddy - no redundancy. The primary data backup system at my current work (an international IT company) is the filing box of blank DVDs. The most 'advanced' (IMO) company I have been to, a Visual Effects company, used nightly offsite tape backups.

Paying $300+ for something not directly involved with opening your emails and watching youtube is not a 'mid-low end' product either.

You're so full of s*** - typical mums and pops don't need to store any data, know what an external hard drive even is, let alone have need for a NAS or Raid setup. The primary data backup system at my last work (a web company) was a $100 nexstar caddy - no redundancy. The primary data backup system at my current work (an international IT company) is the filing box of blank DVDs. The most 'advanced' (IMO) company I have been to, a Visual Effects company, used nightly offsite tape backups.

Paying $300+ for something not directly involved with opening your emails and watching youtube is not a 'mid-low end' product either.

Well it's mid-low level because it's pretty much hit the sweet spot in terms of price / performance. Even you didn't want to spend $800 + on high end NAS so I'd say you're fall into the mums and pops demographics. And get off your high horse, mums and pops these days are pretty pc savvy when it comes to storage, even my mum who's a Luddite knows what a USB drive is that's how prevalent they are.

Most mums and pops have digital cameras now a days so yeah they'll be storing stuff. I'm glad you bought the drive I'm sure you'll be happy with it - like most mums and pops :)

Are we counting d*******s with babies off this forum as 'mums and pops'?

Most parents I know don't have $300 to just throw away on something like this. They are thinking about saving up to buy their kids some socks or school books.

last edited by thermite at 15:15:11 30/Sep/09

whatever thermite dude, if you're trying to troll me give it up :) I'm old and crusty so I don't really care about what you think of the world any more than you care about what I think of you. Just enjoy your purchase.

I am just making down-to-earth observations, and you're saying the typical Aussie battler family is happy to throw wads of cash at obscure unheard-of unadvertised technology that is not practically applicable or useful for them at all.
I don't appreciate people who can't have a discussion without throwing the 'troll' word around - it seems to be the latest internet meme to call people a troll, and just shows you can't think for yourself. You just repeat s*** you've seen other people write.

What are you gonna say next? "fail" ?

last edited by thermite at 15:36:58 30/Sep/09

Sure buddy, I'm full of s***. Whatever makes you happy :)

You can't even respond to conversation like a normal thinking human being - why bother posting at all in the first place? You only posted to try and insult me for the product I chose to purchase with your little 'mum and pop' crack - and then you decide to turn around and label me a troll for calling you on it? You're some piece of work, and you're totally out of touch with the average Australian.

wow thermite do you live in an industrial bin?

You can't even respond to conversation like a normal thinking human being - why bother posting at all in the first place? You only posted to try and insult me for the product I chose to purchase with your little 'mum and pop' crack - and then you decide to turn around and label me a troll for calling you on it? You're some piece of work, and you're totally out of touch with the average Australian.

hahah dude, if I were going insult you, I wouldn't be that subtle. I guess you missed the bit where I also said:

They're pretty good, I got the 1TB RAID 0/500GB RAID1 model.

I guess by your logic I must've also been insulting myself? hahahahaa WTF is going on. Anyway, like I said, I'm genuinely glad you buy that drive I'm sure you'll be happy with it.