Re: [TCLUG:7646] CD-R

[Phil Mendelsohn <mend0070@tc.umn.edu>]

Scot Jenkins wrote:

> CDRWs are  great for backups.  It's a lot faster then ftape (floppy tape)
> and holds alot more data.  

Can't agree with you on the capacity point -- I get 5GB on an Exabyte
w/o compression, approaching 10GB, depending on how the data and
hardware compression get along.  Unless floppy tape is a more specific
term than what I think it means.

> Plus with RW, you don't have to keep throwing
> them out after you burn it and then your data changes (like you would with
> CDR).

Well, that does seem a bit wasteful.  As I said, we used to go through
them like post-its anyway, so throwing out a disc was not a problem.

Incidentally -- whoever said you could put 'em in the microwave to erase
them:  try taking a utility knife and scraping away the reflective gold
layer sometime.  There is no protective coating above it on most CD-R,
and you can make all sorts of fun Christmas ornaments from them while
rendering them unreadable!
 
> The only issue I've seen with them is that non-DVD CDR drives won't read
> the CDRW discs.  This isn't a problem since I just NFS export the mounted
> CDRW from the machine with the burner and now it's available.

Well, that's a pretty serious problem to me!  You're banking on the
reliability of one piece of hardware.  I'd prefer a backup medium that
can be read by a large number of things, in the even that that's the one
of the broken pieces during the apocalypse.

> Personally I like em.

I see now how you might -- the speed thing is a pretty attractive arg.

Best,

Phil