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I've just decided I'm gonna try my best not to obsessively burn everything I have to DVD anymore.
My internet connection is pretty slow (5mbps DSL is all I can get), so a long time ago, I decided that "if I'm going to take the time to download it, I might as well burn it to disc". At 20 cents per blank DVD-R, why not?
Moving forward...not so much. For years I've been paying $20 for a spindle of 100 blank DVDs, and they're only getting harder and harder to find at that price, thanks I believe to this lovely tax copyright levy on blank media we have here in Canada, that is causing discs to be more and more expensive over time.
Whereas spinning drives are getting larger and cheaper. It's now cheaper, per GB, to buy hard drives than blank DVDs.
How late to this party am I?
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I haven't burnt a CD or DVD in ooooh, 5 or more years.
Everything goes on my NAS: 4 off 4TB HDD in RAID 5, giving me about n12TB of "protected" storage.
And I don't have to hunt through a stack of DVDs going "which bloody one is it on?" 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: And I don't have to hunt through a stack of DVDs going "which bloody one is it on?"
That's also part of why I'm making the move.
I'm fairly well organized, and I've been using a cataloging app for probably over a decade, which can show me the exact content of a disc without having to insert it (it retrieves all file properties and can present the content pretty much as if I was looking at the file system in Explorer)...but for reasons I won't get into, that data file got corrupt without me realizing it, and I backed it up over my good backup, and the monthly rotating backup before that... 
I do have a NAS...that didn't keep me from burning stuff to disc however.
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For the same reason, I copied all my music CDs to the hard disk.
Over the years, my CD collection grew to a couple thousand albums, and I spent an increasing amount of time searching back and forth for this and that piece of music - especially when I know that I have got another version of the same piece, but I don't remember which artist made it. Nowadays, when I buy a new CD (yes, I still do!) I play it once, ripping it to the hard disk. Thanks to the online CD databases (such as CDDB), accessed by the ripping program, the file name usually reflects the work title, available for ordinary file search.
I am so old fashioned that I want to keep the CD as a backup. Young people don't see why. I even used to burn CD copies of the radio plays etc. that I have recorded. The only reason why I don't do that any more is that my archives are so full of material that I don't do much recording!
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Yeah got a couple of external HDD's. Consider that even dirt cheap 1 TB = 250 DVD's and a lot cheaper.
avoid getting too many though, otherwise same thing .... which one is it on again?, which was the last one?
My suggestion: get 2 - 3 in different colors, more than enough.
Also upgraded desktop internal to SSD (also to cheap to ignore), left the 1G HDD in there for automated backups, and finally a recovery bootable thumb drive - what else is needed?
In fact while ago shrunk the desktop box and pulled out the DVD-RW. (Then threw it away, temporarily put it on the floor, along came of the daughters birds and literally shat on it on what looked like a sensitive moving part - ya can't house train birds.)
Sin tack ear lol
Pressing the any key may be continuate
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Lopatir wrote: avoid getting too many though, otherwise same thing .... which one is it on again?, which was the last one?My suggestion: get 2 - 3 in different colors, more than enough.
I'll get as many as needed to hold everything, and they'll be identified with a simple sticker - 01A, 01B, 02A, 02B, 03A, 03B, etc. I'm already into the habit of buying drives in pairs.
The A's are going to be the primary drives, the B's the corresponding backups. I'm really hoping the digit part isn't going to grow to 99... 
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When you say you buy drives in pairs, you don't mean that you buy two identical drives from the same seller/manufacturer, do you? It's not uncommon to have two drives that fail within a couple weeks of each other if you do this.
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I keep hearing that, and while I'm sure there's absolutely some truth to that, what options, in terms of manufacturers, exist today?
Most of the drives I buy are WD. I'd rather take a chance and get two of theirs from the same batch than giving Seagate any money.
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dandy72 wrote: How late to this party am I?
Which party? The one of living dangerous without backups?
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Yes.
I made a resolution to put more things off about 40 years ago, and I haven't got around to making another since then.
Will Rogers never met me.
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TBH I never make new year solutions either. I just posted the whole thing just to get an idea how many people have stopped burning DVDs altogether.
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Is It too early to bring up new year resolutions? I could say the exact same thing about my lunch, although with more sincerity.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I only burn bootables for disaster recovery.
Otherwise, like others, it has been many years.
Synology makes a nice RAID box.
Also, I found a great program called "Everything" from VoidTools
that will (has) indexed my entire NAS. So I can quickly find anything by searching against filenames and extensions... Fabulous for finding every instance of the same file as well...
But switching to a big NAS was a nice switch.
HTH,
Kirk Out!
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I've looked at Synology's products before, and I never found I could justify the money they want for what is essentially an enclosure with empty drive bays and a fancy RAID controller.
I'm not saying I wouldn't love to have one though. Or two.
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I would ALMOST Agree, but I had a cheap RAID from WD that FAILED BADLY.
(I was literally having issues getting the backup to NOT Take the estimated 34 days!).
So, I splurged for what seemed to be an "expensive" RAID box. I have to tell you that I am quite happy with this. The DSM Updates, the reminders, the installable software. The BACKUP software and the ability to schedule it. The USB3 ports on the back. So, my Synology is partitioned into 2 sides, safe and unsafe. I do NOT backup the unsafe stuff. It is a dumping ground.
But I do backup my machine to a specific share, with a specific username/password (preventing ransomware from potentially encrypting my backups). And it's backups are not available to the connections, which is nice.
Along the way, I had an icon library in ZIP format. Unzipping was taking forever due to the network traffic/etc. I was able to enable a telnet connection, get in, and locally unzip the files. I WAS SOLD. I reduced literally 4 days to 2-4hrs, much of which ran without much work from me. And it did not tie up my computer/network.
Same thing for when I re-partitioned for backup reasons. Dialing into the OS, and moving files there was so much more efficient.
A well designed Tool, across the board. Factor in what I think my time is worth, and this unit has paid for itself.
The ONLY thing I did NOT like was when I upgraded from 1TB to 4TB drives. Each drive replacement forced a rebuild. It took many days to complete. I now own an EXTERNAL DISK DUPLICATOR. (which takes about 1 day per disk, it feels like). If I had to upgrade again, I would duplicate all the disks, and just put the new disks back in. Praying that it worked, or reverting back to the old disks.... But upgrading a RAID in place is NEVER an easy task. But it did handle it properly, and it has been fine ever since...
YMMV... But even though it was expensive, it saves me time by have very little management overhead, and reminding me to run scans and update its firmware/software/etc.
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Thanks for the long post. Rather informative.
What you've described is exactly what makes me nervous about these fancier setups: it sounds like it's loaded with proprietary technology. If the device itself dies (as opposed to just a drive), and the warranty's out, that would mean having to purchase another one, right? Or is there a way you could you access your data on the individual drives without it?
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To be honest, I don't know. But then again, this is why I have backup
I would contact synology and PRAY that buying either a NEW empty unit MIGHT work, or find a refurb of this model. (A quick review on their site indicates that putting the disks in a newer unit is ACTUALLY possible, albeit non-trivial because you have to work a bit to upgrade the DSM and software, etc. But that is good news).
As happy as I am with Synology at this point, I would gladly buy a new unit without disks and move them over.
BTW, a friend setup a PAIR of them for a Client in NY and FL. And they use the sync features to keep them updated. So when they operate their business from FL as snowbirds, all their files are there, and that worked well too... I know about 5 people with them who all have nothing but good things to say about them. FWIW...
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Quite late. Gave up bothering burning to DVD years ago.
Found that I'd burn, file...and then the huge folders of discs would sit on the shelf for years untouched.
Now I've got 8T of NAS space where stuff can sit untouched without me having to shuffle DVDs in and out.
I guess that's one step forward in dealing with my hoarding problem?
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Quite late. Gave up bothering burning to DVD years ago.
Found that I'd burn, file...and then the huge folders of discs would sit on the shelf for years untouched.
Now I've got 8T of NAS space where stuff can sit untouched without me having to shuffle DVDs in and out.
I guess that's one step forward in dealing with my hoarding problem?
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AndrewDavie wrote: I guess that's one step forward in dealing with my hoarding problem?
"Problem"?
I don't know what you're talking about...
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Hi All,
It's been some time since I have been in a supermarket with my Mum, I forgot how to translate "Ah, can you get those thing in tube you like..." to an actual item... we were standing in the frozen food isle at the time, Can anyone guess the item????
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Cannelloni?
Burritos?
Spring Rolls?
Beansprouts?
Spaghetti?
Penne?
Beef Wellington?
Ice Pops?
Garden Hoses?
Earthworms?
Cucumbers?
Am I warm?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: Am I warm?
I suppose that, relative to the rest of the items in the frozen aisle...yes?
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The Frozen Isle was where the question was asked...not where the item was.
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My mistake. It thought it was implied both were true.
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