Well I am finally burning my 5 years worth of archives of pre CD-burner sign work from my zip disc collection. I have been lucky & never had an important zip disc die on me (yet). I will soon finish the last back-up to CD. My next project will be to try out my DVD burner & consolidate about 50 cd's worth of data, drivers & software. It will be the first time I actually have 2 copies of everything.
Just in time to store one set in the new home office I've been trying to set up so I don't have to be here when I feel the need to work until 4AM With my office computers left on & my home machine hooked up through a Virtual Private Network via a broadband internet connection I should be able to work on any files stored on either office machine or any archive disc. With my old Roland PNC 1050 I can even bring home the occassional roll of vinyl for some tedious cutting work to rush out after dinner.
I think billing, preparing estimates, & time consuming design work will be the tasks I will save for doing at home most often. these are the type of jobs that are difficult for me to concentrate on when walk-ins & phone calls are happening.
Posted by Robb Lowe (Member # 2121) on :
A word to the wise on CDR backups....
I've learned the hardway that PNY CDR's are junk, and I suspect many of the cheaper ones are as well. After burning almost 4000 CDR's over the span of 6 years, I can say without question the Verbatim DataLife Plus is the best for both data retention and scratch resistance and PNY is the exact opposite on that spectrum. A couple of good middle-of-the-road brands seem to have been Sony and Imation (no defects yet, but I've only used 100 or so of each).
I generally use the cheapies for music cdr's or temporary use (big file shuttling between offices or customer / office) and the have a stash of the Verbatim's for the long term, gotta have it or I'll die backups.
There are also a couple of flavors of these Verbatims - the ones of choice are the ones that come in the 30-pack with jewel cases, and not the spindle. I dont understand why they did that (offer two discs under the same name) but there is a big difference.
I've always heard good things about Mitsui brand, but havent tried them.
Just some FYI, and Doug - you're one wired up signmaker!
Posted by Steve Burke (Member # 2674) on :
Hi Guys, Robb hit the nail on the head- spend a little extra and get good CD's- I bought a no-name pack on sale at the big W and they were giving me trouble burning music. If it was work-related I'd have been up the creek. I bought more, and i think they were Verbatim as well...no problems, now. Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
Hey Doug,
Sounds like yer really hooked up! There's only one thing I would change.
Have you ever thought about utilizing FireWire harddrives or network attached storage, instead of relying on those bulky (and slow) CD-R's, CDRW's, and DVD's?
I went with FireWire for external storage a couple years ago with my old desktop machine, and now I use a laptop for all my work but keep the desktop going for mass storage and backup. The desktop computer has a pair of 18 Gig Seagate Cheetah's which are mirrors of each other, and I backup to them over the LAN from the laptop. Then the external 40Gig FireWire drive contains complete system backups of both the laptop and desktop, plus all the working files. I basically have 3 backups of everything and it's pretty instantaneous with these smokin' drives. The nice part is if the desktop takes a crap, I still have everything on the laptop and can plug the FireWire drive into it instead.
The FireWire stuff is quick, and the newer 80 Gig FW drives can hold over a hundred CD's worth of data, saving alot of room on the shelf!
Posted by David Wright (Member # 111) on :
I'm with Mike, external hard drives are good. I just purchased an 80 gig usb 2.0 external.
Posted by Robb Lowe (Member # 2121) on :
Firewire and USB 2.0 will definitely revolutionize the backup market, but for now - cost and availablity not to mention wide ranges of uses make CDR the choice. USB 1 is a little slow for mass data transfer, although it works well for the zip drives and scanners.
Personally, I'm all hot and bothered for the new USB 'thumb drives'. I envision them ending up as the defacto 'dog tag' where one keeps all their pertinent information on a keychain or necklace. Price is coming down steadily, and one company is even offering them color coded so you can have one for business, one for home, one for med-alert, whatever. Good idea.
One thing is for damn sure - there are more choices than you can shake stick at, and it's only going to get better (or worse, if you're Iomega ).
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
Well I got a solid 2 hours sleep, some good coffee & did a few morning chores for the lady of the house & now I'm back at it. Yeah you could say I'm one WIRED signmaker today. lol
I'll be checking tigerdirect.com for a removable HD case. I've just been getting up to speed on ways to move data. Now that I have a house instead of living in my shop I want to compress all 300+ music cd's into mp3 files & get some good software for creating my own playlists & shuffle subgroups. I like to listen for an 8 hour shift without having to think about it, but if I get an urge to dial up a particular tune it could be easier via the computer. Then I could have another copy of the mp3's at home & still be able to take my originals on the road.
I'll have to learn more about firewire.
Posted by Roy Somers (Member # 403) on :
Doug. I use the MusicMatch Jukebox. The cheap version came with my computer. It doesn't burn cd's but I have other software for that. I have about 450 songs on my computer. With the jukebox I can select how long I want to listen to music and it will generate a playlist that long. You can choose from all of your songs to make the list or songs by genre, artist, etc. You can make a playlist of what songs you want to hear or just play a song you feel like hearing at any given time. There are many players, my son uses another, but this one came with my computer and it works well for me.
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
Doug, let me put it this way.. FireWire = 35 MB/sec sustained transfer rate, which is quick as snot for backup.. The cool part is, if you dont have FireWire quite yet, you can still use the same drive with USB, then switch to the FireWire interface when you get your computer setup with it..
120GB!! Not a bad deal for $330 with the flexibility that drive offers with both USB and FireWire interfaces. PLus this drive is pretty quick for regular use with an 8.5ms seek time and 7200 RPM.
[ June 04, 2002, 08:26 PM: Message edited by: Mike Pipes ]
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