are DVDs and cds the best way to back up important data on my computer?

Question

someone told me on an old question years ago, that external hard drives are a bad idea for long term storage of important files, because they fail?

he told me that the best way to back up all my media files and data, is to back them up to CDs or DVDs......because that way they will keep forever?


but i ask, wouldn't that be time consuming and take you a long time? especially if you have a lot of media files?

Answer 1

Just keep backups of your hard drive and you should be fine.

You can use a RAIDs to protect against drive failure, and then backup to other drives to prevent data loss or corruption. You can get reasonably priced NAS devices that let you back up data to a RAID.



CDs don't last forever. I'm not sure how reliable they are but I'm sure you can find articles on it. I've got CDs from 15 years ago that won't read anymore for whatever reason.

Answer 2

It all will eventually fail. If properly cared for it can lat for decades.The best practice would be to have things on multible backups. Get yourself at least 2 drives that are exact copies, and periodocly check them and replace them when one does start acting up. You can also do something like this in a more advanced way by setting up a "raid" system, but I would go into that.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie9qomn3_3U

Answer 3

External drives are a better option if you want to keep proper backups, but test the drive regularly and replace it if you ever doubt its' condition.

Answer 4

Everything "fails" eventually. Multiple backups reduce your exposure to failure, but there is no guarantee.