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DVD-RAM vs. CDRW vs.Orb Drive vs. Jazz Drive

T

turf

Member
Just another "let's all share our thoughts here" thread. I was just contemplating what would be the best "bang for the buck" setup for someone wanting to back up skads of information in one place. I've pretty much ruled out the good for nothing but a paperweight zip drives for this dicussion. I use a cdrw myself and it serves my proposes, but I was also reading about the 2GB jazz drives and alst the 2GB Orb drives, they seem a little expensive. DVD-RAM seems to have awsome potential, and $30 a disk (DVD-RAM) isn't THAT bad considering the jazz disks are nearly $70. But that would be one expensive coaster if ya ruined it. Let me hear your thoughts or experiences onthis matter, don't forget to mention what you use for backing up your files too🙂.
 
CDR/CDRW has one undeniable advantage--it can be read from most computers. (BTW I had no trouble reading my high-quality Ricoh CDRW's in different CD/DVD-ROM drives.) This is especially convenient when several computers need to be backed up. Besides the obvious non-backup advantages of CDR's.
 
leo, i would agree with you on the cdrw compatability issue, but whew, >10GB on one disk does sound pretty attractive!!
 
Roger that turf. I still see problems with DVD-RAM; it seems like an immature technology. For instance, how fast can these disks be written? I bet they're no faster (if not slower) than CDR/CDRW. It may be more convenient to wait 2 hours for one DVD-RAM to burn, instead of swapping 8 CDRW's (AFAIK, DVD-RAM can only hold 5.2GB currently). But consider practicality: you're much more likely to need data in far smaller units than 1+GB. Since you can read CDRW's just as quickly (I assume), and they don't require special drives, I see little advantage in using DVD-RAM--unless you archive entire petabytes, and the physical space of the actual media becomes a problem.

For all practical purposes, DVD-RAM is just as proprietary a media as Jazz or tape. While its name resembles CD-R or CD-RW, it really shares none of their portability (or usability) advantages. Until (and if) writable DVD-ROM becomes a usable technology, I'd recommend CDR/CDRW.
 
Actually having a random access disk to backup very large amounts of data is a very important feature in favor of the dvd-ram. I usually generate a few Gb (10-20) in experiments for work, and can tell you tapes are a pain in the rear end! They take forever, if you need one file you have to uncompress the whole thing and it is very easy to lose theire contents. So I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of a final standard for rewritable dvd discs. All the other are either too expensive or too cumbersome (imagine backing up 20 Gb in cds...)
 
BTW, one problem with optical media is high error rate. This is why I use high-quality Ricoh CDRW and Ricoh Platinum CDR's. I also bought jewel cases for them to prevent surface scratches; the transparent double-slimline cases hold 2 CD's in a normal-sized case. (from www.nviclassical.com, they have great service)
 
I'll have to admit, CDR's can be cumbersome for periodic backups of huge amounts of data. However, my 60GB Maxtor disk mostly holds losslessly-compressed music (extracted from CD as .wav, losslessly compressed using www.monkeysaudio.com). I'm archiving my music, and obviously CDR's are ideal for flexibility with this.

Most of my other stuff is also static. The dynamic data can be reduced to a couple CDRW's at MOST. Of course, others have different situations.
 
If you don't need access to it immediatly and it simply for archiving purposes, I'd say a 10/20GB TR5 (NS20) Traven tape drive. The IDE drive costs about $200 and each cartridge goes for $30.

For data that needs to accessed on the fly, I would also go with CDR/CDRW. Its cheap, fast, highly portable, durable, and who doesn't have access to a CD-ROM?

Like Leo V I beleive that DVD-RAM is very immature technology that is overpriced for what you get.

I have a very strong aversion to anything Iomega so the Jaz is out in my opinion.

Windogg
 
Tape drives are good, but slow. Maybe try Onstream. Avoid Castlewood's Orb like the plague, everyone I know who got one had serious problems with it.
 
i would go with cdr/rw for general back up purely for the fact that virutually everyone has a cd-rom, and cd-r are are very cheap.

i looked into orb drives as they where coming out however unless youhave the scsi version they aren't that fast.


If you need to keep a huge amount of data look into an external hard drive.
 
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