Folks - having never had a DVD writer before...

I need to purchase blank DVD disks - they will be used for data backup purposes. The DVD writers I have support all the usual formats: dvd-rom, dvd-r, dvd+r, dvd-rw,dvd+rw, dvd-r dl, dvd+r dl

So, what discs do I need to buy?

Cheers
Dave

Dave,

I use dvd-r disks for my PC and my DVD recorder.

Michael.

Hi,

DVD-R & DVD+R are the cheapest to buy and it shouldn't really matter which of these you use, these are single use disks, ie...you can't re-record.
DVD-RW & DVD+RW are slightly more expensive and are re-recordable.
DVD-R DL & DVD+R DL are dual layer disks and are the most expensive but hold the most data, over 8GB per disk.

The choice is yours !!

Cheers.

Hi Dave

I use “Verbatim” DVD+RW, which are DVD+ Rewritable, seems that any DVD players / recorders and PCs I have come across can quite easily handle these disks (4.7GB). Very handy for transferring old family movies from video tapes to DVD, then making copies and sending them to other family members.
Dave, I would highly recommend that you invest in an external hard-drive, I purchased a “Seagate Free Agent" with a capacity of 500GB for only 169 Euro in Peat’s in Dublin, I have lots of AVIs of meteors backed up on this system and it is as simply as it gets, no messing around.

Clear skies
Mike

Beware that rewritables are a lot slower to record than regular +r or -r disks. Hence, only buy RW if you need to write more than once. For archival purposes +r or -r are the way to go or, if you want to get more on each archive the DL ones.

Bart.

Dave,

Be aware that the life-span on writable DVDs and CDs is not that great. Because they only employ a pigment-based data storage method and not a perforated foil (like commercial CDs and DVDs) data has been known to become corrupted (through pigment break-down) in as little as a year - though this is an extreme example.

The point is, don't treat DVDs or CDs as *permanent* data storage media. Always have a master backup on a separate/dedicated hard disk (and hope to god that it doesn't suffer a crash!)

Phil.

PS - PCW or PC World? magazines occasionally do a review of these things. It might be worth looking up their websites for their take on the problem.

Thanks for the feedback folks - here's a follow-up question

What's the difference between DVD-r and DVD+r ?


As regards backups, I take your point Phil. I have just invested in a new PC with 2 terabytes of hard-disk. This is running in RAID 10 mode giving me 1 terabyte of data storage. AFAIK this system will allow two hard disk failures with no data loss. I'm just ordering a fifth drive to allow for the failure of one of my current four drives. They're brand new so I hope not to have to use it for a while

The DVD's are really a "temporary" (a few years) worth of backup in case I lose data due to operator error...

Cheers
Dave

David,

DVD-R is a slightly older format and will play on most players, DVD+R is newer and has slightly better video quality but will not play on very old players.

For backup purposes there's no difference.

Thanks for that Brian. I've ordered a stack of DVD-R's.

Dave

This is excellent info ... thanks from me as well since it will be of benefit as well.

David,

DVD-R is a slightly older format and will play on most players, DVD+R is newer and has slightly better video quality but will not play on very old players.

For backup purposes there's no difference.

That's not quite true. DVD+ and DVD- were developed at about the same time. The difference is that Phillips went for - and Sony for +. It could have been a Betamax vs VHS war except that manufacturers decided to support both. Quality wise there's little difference. Capacity-wise there's no difference. All players now support both. Shop around - sometimes you see + disks for half the price of - disks - and sometimes the other way around. I always buy the cheapest at the time