Advice re: archiving software

[allen.tony]

I'm new to digital cameras, having received a Pentax Optio 43WR as a father's day gift. I like the camera a lot, particularly it's water resistant feature, and have taken quite a few pictures already, as well as using it to record some musical rehearsals.

Rather than be too picky about which picture and sound files to keep and which to discard, I'd like simply to transfer them to CD-R occasionally, and then clear them off my hard drive. However the two programs I've tried so far don't make the grade:
*ACDSee 5.1.01 (which came with my camera) doesn't seem to offer a "copy images to CD-R" option.
*Ulead Photo Explorer 8.0 will copy to a CD-ROM, but only if all the images are collected together in one folder.

What I want to be able to do is simply specify which folders (and all the files they contain) I want to copy to CD-ROM, and leave the software to do the rest. Since I'm only an occasional user, I also don't want to have to spend a lot of money(!)

Any advice?
Thanks in advance
Tony Allen in Saskatoon Canada

[Ray Schnoor]

I don't understand why you want your photo editing/viewing software to be a CD-R burning device. That's what the software that came with your CD-R is for.

If you want to make a newsletter that includes some photos, should your photo editing/viewing software also include a word processor?

[Cailean]

Sarcasm is not the best way to encourage new members, Ray.

What I think Ray wanted say was that transferring files (of any kind) to a CD is best done with software designed for that purpose. 'Burning' features bundled into imaging software are not going to as functional, as you've apparently discovered!
It may be seen as a hassle to have to use more than one program to handle you image management, but it is often unavoidable. I currently use up to 4 different programs to crop/resize/print/e-mail/archive my digital photos. Each does a few things really well but none does everything well - even if they claim to!

Hope this helps!

[Ron Oly]

QUOTE:
What I want to be able to do is simply specify which folders (and all the files they contain) I want to copy to CD-ROM, and leave the software to do the rest. Since I'm only an occasional user, I also don't want to have to spend a lot of money(!)
QUOTE END

If you're on Win XP, you may try selecting the folders with your pictures (or selecting the individual pictures in any folder) and drag them to your cdr drive in windows explorer : windows xp built in cdr burning application will kick in and let you burn those images (or folders with images) to cdr.

No other software needed, no costs. Fast and easy. :)

[George Riehm]

As a final thought:

Do you trust that your photos will be safe on CD-R? Hopefully you have the important ones backed up on a more time-reliable medium, like DVD, or on another hard drive somewhere.

I have already lost one CD after about 4 years. Fortunately, I had it backed up on my "photos" hard drive, and now on DVD (theoretical 100 yr. shelf life). With Hard drives and DVD burners getting so cheap, there is no reason not to take advantage of these media.

The "photos" hard drive is an external 60GB firewire drive that is only used to download from my camera/Flash cards. I back-up to DVD about once a week.

Actually, I also have most of them on my laptop, so they are triple backed-up.

Not paranoid...just careful. I guess it depends on what value the images have to you. The 2 drives in question cost about $160 total + about $1.25 per DVD+RW disk (I currently store about 14GB on 4 disks).

Once a digital image is gone...

[bka314]

As a final thought:

Do you trust that your photos will be safe on CD-R? Hopefully you have the important ones backed up on a more time-reliable medium, like DVD, or on another hard drive somewhere.

[...]

Not paranoid...just careful. I guess it depends on what value the images have to you. The 2 drives in question cost about $160 total + about $1.25 per DVD+RW disk (I currently store about 14GB on 4 disks).

Once a digital image is gone...


Sorry to continue after the final thought...

Theoretically the CDs have the same 100 year life... And I have noticed you wrote that you save on DVD-RW (!) not DVD-R. Maybe that is the more important (?)
I myself don't know who to believe so I have all my pics on a DVD-R and on a DVD-RW. Slim case, the two fits into one's place - everything is in order. And we'll see which lasts longer.
I don't like saving on HDD - it's an all or nothing game. Well, with triple backup I don't say a word against it.


And so... why do you think DVDs last longer than CD? Do you have some technical and/or scientific explanaion?
I know that higher frequency light (don't know exact numbers but visible light freq) is used to read and burn the DVD, not infrared as for the CD. This means that they could use better dyes that don't react with infrared, which means they're more safe - but is this really the case?

[al macdiarmid]

DVDs have a thicker protective coating for one thing. The label side of a CD is very easy to scratch. If you back up to two different media, don't forget to store one off site. If the place burns down or floats away, one does not want to lose all copies at one time. Al

[bka314]

I don't think the aging problem can be solved with thicker coating, because it's not a mechanical problem - but maybe...

And, yes... Protecting myself against all my date floating away with my room I go immediately to the nearest bank and ask them to store my backup DVDs in a safe ;).

Still, no good: what about bank-robbery :confused:

I'm getting more and more paranoid :eek:

[jaykinghorn]

Hi, I happened across this list recently and read the thread on archive media. I have been doing a lot of research in this area recently and have found the topic of archival media to be frought with misinformation.

Particularly pertinent to this thread is the CD vs. DVD vs. hard drive question. No one method of storage is bombproof, but used together can be a highly-effective backup system I've been advised away from CD-RW and DVD-RW because they use a softer layer for receiving the data than "burn once" media. Also, why pay the extra money for a disc that will be burnt only once.

I've found the following websites to be incredibly helpful
Media Sciences: An independent research and testing facility for optical media. www.mscience.com
The National Institute of Standards, NIST, published a "Care and Handling of CD's and DVD's. It is available as a PDF at:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/

Happy Shooting
Jay Kinghorn
RGB Imaging