Are memorex cds a bad thing to put all of my images on?

I am going to make 3 copies of each image. I have about 15,000 pictures of my own, I am going to put each folder on a cd. I read online somewhere that memorex is mostly crap, but other cds are far more expensive, tomorrow I can get a 100 pack of Memorex cdrs for 15.

I am deleting the images from my PC after the burns, is this a bad idea?

Bad idea all around in my opinion. I'm not a big fan of backing up to optical media. With the price of hard drives so cheap I'd rather backup to external drives. However you backup, I wouldn't delete the originals from your PC. I backup to 2 external drives, one of them stays connected to my computer, the other is stored off site. The originals remain on my internal drive.

I've been using Memorex DVD +R's for the last six years (since TDK seemes to have dropped out of sight in the stores in my area) and I haven't had a problem with playback on any of those discs. At one time Memorex used to have problems, but they've managed to take care of their issues. Now Sony optical media, OTOH, has given me constant fits.

Still, if this is critical storage, I would both burn to DVD AND keep an external drive as backup.

EDIT: You mentioned CD's...holds for them as well.

I use memorex dvds for database dump/backups at work, haven't ever had problems with them during home use either.

How much more are the DVD-Rs compared to the CD-Rs? I am planning on getting an external HD as well

if you can burn DVDs, then use those. they'll hold about 6.5 times as much data as a CD. they cost more, but you'll use less discs. also, they'll take up less space.

i had problems with memorex early on. they may have fixed their problems, but i still won't use them.

I personally use Ritek DVD R's and haven't had a single issue so far. But i agree with keeping the files in an external HDD than optical media. Also external HDD's are cheap enough now.

I think I will put my pics on dvds, and buy a bunch of dvds, and when I eventually have clients one day, I will make a copy of each shoot I do

Thanks guys

I only have about 75 gigs of pics right now

These?

http://www.meritline.c​om …18448.aspx?sour​ce=fgmedia

No manufacturer rates the longevity of their best DVDs at any better than 30-50% of the longevity of their own best CDs.

But the major problem with optical media is that there is no such thing as a "file it and forget it" storage medium. Even if you carved your data into stone, you would still need to re-validate its integrity periodically (even if only every hundred years).

Data on optical media needs re-validation probably every year--re-reading every disk and copying as necessary. Then it's going to need to be transferred to newer types of media every 10 years.

The advantage of hard drives is not longevity but the ease with which huge amounts of data can be re-validated and transferred to newer media formats--either can literally be done in your sleep.

I'm wondering if I should just get two external hard drives, the thing is, those can be pretty pricey. I may do a backup of disks as well just to be on the safe side, I only need about 320gb

AprilArchambeau wrote in post #10188525
I'm wondering if I should just get two external hard drives, the thing is, those can be pretty pricey. I may do a backup of disks as well just to be on the safe side, I only need about 320gb

External harddrives can be had for $60-80 for 500GB

Yea I found some, its just that bad reviews scared me, there can be 50 good ones, and 5 that say oh after a month it deleted all of my files, that terrifies me

AprilArchambeau wrote in post #10188525
I'm wondering if I should just get two external hard drives, the thing is, those can be pretty pricey. I may do a backup of disks as well just to be on the safe side, I only need about 320gb

How much is your time worth? It'll take several days to copy photos on to 250 DVDs. And you'll have to sit there swapping disks every few minutes. Get two 500 GB drives and a docking station and it'll take a fraction of the time (and you can set it going then go away and do something useful).

Those two drives will take up a lot less physical space than 250 DVDs and it'll be a hell of a lot easier to actually find an image when you need to.

AprilArchambeau wrote in post #10188755
Yea I found some, its just that bad reviews scared me, there can be 50 good ones, and 5 that say oh after a month it deleted all of my files, that terrifies me

That's an over-magnification of the risk. But that's also why you keep two or three copies.

Multiple copies and dispersal trump armor every time. That's why there are still cockroaches and T-Rex is extinct.

A true story: The US Veterans Administration hospitals have been keeping patient records digitally for a couple of decades now. As Hurricane Katrina bore down upon New Orleans, the records technician at the New Orleans VA hospital was downloading their records into several hard drives. He packet them into a briefcase and evacuated to Houston.

At the Houston VA hospital, he uploaded the records to the primary depository in St Louis...where they would be available to any of the New Orleans patients at any VA hospital wherever they might have been evacuated.

The New Orleans hospitals that kept patient records in hardcopy either lost them in the hurricane or were unable to make them immediately available to evacuated patients.