A couple of other thoughts about CD storage for magazines -- 1) CDs are too small to be useful if you have much data at all -- at only 600MB per CD, you'll need many for any sort of sizeable library.
2) Once you have more than one, searching them is a pain...unless you have some software application that indexes and searches offline storage. 3) One approach to consider is to use double sided DVDs for backup only. Keep the files on a local hard drive for fast searches, etc., and periodically write one or more DVDs. 3) With the price of hard disks today, I'm almost convinced they make the best searchable storage and backup medium...500GB disks are now $129 each -- compared this to the price of several double sided DVDs. And with RAID 0 technology, there are now relatively low cost servers available that automatically will maintain a second copy. I'm using a HP Media Vault 2020 with two 500GB disks -- where one disk is an automatic copy of the other disk (the hardware in the server does this), and one disk is in a pull-out slot, so it can easily be deposited in a fire safe when I'm away from home if desired. Michael At 5/10/2007 12:53 PM, Richard Karnes wrote: >All -- > >Re converting your magazines to CDs -- If you do this, be careful >what you're letting yourself in for. The average life of a CD (the >length of time it remains "readable") can be as little as four >years. No matter what electronic media upon which you choose to >record, you are faced with the certainty of periodic checking and >recopying/refreshing. On top of that, you have the >ever-accelerating pace of electronic technology development. How >long will it be before CDs are obsolete, and you won't be able to >find a device that will read them anymore? in 2012 your old Windows >Vista PC will no longer be functional. Remember 8-track >tapes? Punch cards? 5-1/4" floppy disks? You can use these only >in museums. As any archaeologist can tell you, quality paper can >last forever. (Well, at least for your lifetime.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Greene Dunstable, MA, USA Member: NMRA(Life), NASG, Bristol S Gaugers, The 470 Railroad Club National Assoc. of S Gaugers http://www.nasg.org DCC Corner http://www.dccinfo.com Maine Railroads http://www.mainerailroads.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
