Media Storage

Hello,

I have been saving or backing up my photo's to cd's.

My question is: CD, DVD or Flash drive, is one superior to the other. What about image deterioration. Or

archival qualities?

Any comments would help.

Thanks Tim

Recently, I heard that within a few years, all cameras will be made to convert images into the DNG format, since it is supposed to be superior to RAW etc. Also, I believe that CD's/DVD's have issues with deterioration. I'm not sure about the flash drives. I'd love to know about them too.

"it is supposed to be superior to RAW "

 

I never heard of that, but a couple of years ago I downloaded the DNG converter from the Adobe website because the version of PE that I had,could not read Raw files. I not only found it pretty inconvenient having to change all my RAW files to DNG,but it also meant that I had an extra copy of a large file on my Hard drive. I upgraded to PE version 6 which reads RAW files,so I no longer use DNG files.

 

Most CD's and DVD's can become corrupted after a while, but it takes years. For archival purposes they sell gold plated CD's and DVD that are supposed to outlast the common ones.

Liz, flash drives can't be relied upon for any time frame. I won't put a file on one that I don't have a copy of. I'm sure they are better, but they used to come with warnings that they can't be relied on.

There are Gold CD's and DVD's that are suppose to have a longer life then the normal discs. But something always could go wrong. So you should keep at least 2 copies of your important files.

 

And if you can, have one set stored off-site some where.....even if its at a family members home. But bank safe deposit box, or on a storage service's server would be better.