Storage: Optical
drives
Most of you have either a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM installed
in your PC. This is the primary source for installing games
and application, playing back videos from DVD/VCD or audio
from an audio CD. In fact, for most of us, it's the only
way for us to install Windows. So, needless to say, a
CD/DVD-ROM is very important. Now for those of you less
technically inclined, a DVD-ROM will also read ordinary
CDs, so you don't have to buy a separate drive just to read
CD-ROMs.The only reason you probably want to buy another drive is you want to make your own CDs or DVDs. An ordinary CD/DVD-ROM drive can't write data onto a CD or DVD media, so you'll need either a CD-RW or a DVD-RW drive. Again, a CD-RW drive will only be able to write to regular CD-R (R for Recordable) or CD-RW (RW for ReWritable), while DVD-RW drive can write to CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R and DVD-RW media. So if you can spare the money, get a DVD-RW since they support reading and writing all those medias. Fortunately, DVD-RW drives have become more affordable.
Before you go and buy a DVD-RW drive, you must know that there are two competing standards of DVD recordable media, the DVD-R (minus) and the DVD+R (plus). Of course, this also applies to the rewritable version that media (DVD-RW and DVD+RW. Confusing isn't? Thankfully, manufacturers now have drives that supports both standards, usually called DVD-/+RW. So, buy a drive that supports both standards. As a plus, the newer drives also support dual layer recording. Dual layer recording allows you to use dual layer media that holds twice the capacity of single layer media.
The Next
Battle: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray
Trying to come up with even bigger capacities, the
industry is proposing two new standards: HD-DVD and
Blu-Ray. Don't worry, these devices will still be able to
read all current DVD formats. However, they will also
support a new media that will hold up to 40 GBs of data.
Unfortunately, these new standards are not compatible with
each other, so first generation drives supporting either
one of these format most likely will not be able to read
the other. Hopefully, the next generation of these drives
will (eventually) support both formats, just like the case
with the DVD recordable media. In the meantime, most people
will find a DVD writer is enough since it's way more
affordable and DVD-ROMs have a larger install base than
either HD-DVD and Blu-Ray put together.
The Media Debacle
Choosing a recordable media can be a major pain. There
are a variety of media grades, with the same variety in
quality and longevity. After years and years of writing
both CDs and DVDs, I think it's safe to say that no single
media will last forever. Even the best grade media will
only stay readable for one or two years if you use them
regularly. So the best policy is redundancy: make two
copies of your data - one for storage and one for access.
After one year, repeat the process for the same data. Sure,
you will probably end up with a stack of media containing
the same set of data, but you won't lose your data.The same policy also applies to backup, although there are some additional measures you may want to take. First of all, combine two sets of backup (full and incremental) so you won't lose (much) if anything bad happens. Depending on how often your files change, set a full backup every week (often) or every month (less often). Between those week (or months), do incremental backups, either daily or weekly. For backups of systems, use rewritable media so you can reuse the media several times. For data backups and archives, use recordable media - they can only be used one time so use them for finalized data (data that will not change) if possible.
Remember this if you're thinking about getting a CD/DVD-ROM
- For reading and accessing data, an ordinary CD/DVD-ROM drive is enough.
- If you don't use either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, there's no sense of getting them now. Get them when there are drives supporting both.
- A faster drive is not always the better solution. Make sure it's supports UltraDMA mode and buffer underrun protection so your data backup process will run without errors.
- If you have to use PIO mode or if the drive doesn't come with buffer underrun protection, try to use a lower speed when writing. Not only will this reduce the risk of errors, it will also improve compatibility with the media used and readability on other devices.
- If you have many files or if they change frequently, you may want to back them up. You can use a CD/DVD writer to make backups using the appropriate recordable media.
- Depending on the size of your backups, choose either a CD-RW (small: 650 - 700 MBs), a DVD-RW (large: 4.7 GBs) or a DVD-RW that supports dual layer recording (even larger: 9.4 GBs).
- Backup wisely, do a combination of full and incremental backups regularly depending on how often your data changes. For example if it changes daily, do daily incremental backups combined with weekly full backups. You can choose longer periods if your data changes less often.
- Even the best media will eventually go bad. Make two copies of your backup - one for storage and another for access. Keep them separate and stored in a dry, clean and cool area and in their containers.
- If you think all of this is too much, think about how important is your data. If you can get by without them, you probably don't have to do backups and vice versa.
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