In a message dated 1/2/2006 2:04:26 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: HDD drives are not only mechanically far less durable than simple optical disks (CD/DVD) they also have a lot of sensitive and rather complex electronics ( the HDD controllers are built into the drives ) which also can fail far more easily than any CD/DVD. Things like shock, power surges, and static (ESD) can destroy a HDD while a CD/DVD disk isnt subject to those vunerabilities... I don't think that any HDD, even the best, is ever going to be within a magnitude of reliablility of a simple CD/DVD disk which would be wanted, at least for archival usage...
jco ============= Some people don't look at this as an all or nothing thing. I archive stuff to CD/DVD, then back it up onto a hard drive for ease of access. William Robb =========== What he said. Frankly having dealt with Netflix I think DVDs scratch too easily. My other experiences with DVDs too. And they can break. Sure when archiving one is going to be very careful, but still... So I'd want to do both. Truthfully, I don't like ANY of the options available with the current state of technology. But I'll use what's affordable and doable until something better comes along. Sometimes I get irked. Because sometimes people with more money than myself offer solutions that, while good, I feel are out of my reach financially. This list has enabled me enough. :-) And I know they aren't doing it to irk me, but they should bear in mind that we can't all afford the topmost optimal solution. And we aren't NOT doing it to irk them. Marnie aka Doe :-)

