On Jan 3, 2006, at 3:14 PM, Rob Studdert wrote:
... DVDs in my experience are not realy that physicallly sensitive to dust ( can be wiped off) or even lots of light scratches. ...
I have seen plenty of cases where DVDs in particular do not play correctly due to scratching, less so for CD media, and this is for commercially produced CDs/DVDs, which are a lot more robust than CD-R and DVD-R media. Caution in handling and storage is always a good idea for sensitive data, whether you've had good or bad experience with the media. Multiple backups is always the safest course of action.
One of the advantages of large capacity hard disk storage is that very large libraries of data can be periodically checked and verified easily and quickly, without physically having to mount and dismount large numbers of devices. Handling is the biggest source of damage to any media, film included. Any open-to-the-air, interchangeable media device is, by its very nature, more prone to damage than a sealed hard disk's platters. Notwithstanding the frangibility of portable hard drive devices (where you've made a tradeoff in reliability/ durability for the advantage of portability) HDDs have significantly greater MTBF ratings compared to any floppy or other open-platter storage device.
Godfrey
