Flash memory these days is stupidly cheap. A 64GB memory card is under 40 bucks. To put this in perspective, a 64GB memory card will hold the data of 13 DVD-5 (the 4.7GB kind) discs.
Now while true that DVD media is way, way cheaper than Flash memory, bear in mind a memory card can never be scratched and is physically a whole lot smaller.
At some point in the future, yes I will be moving all my stored data off my discs and external hard drives to memory cards. I can’t quite do it just yet because I’m waiting for the 128GB cards to come down in price (the cheapest right now is still about $120), but once it does, my preferred long-term storage solution will be the memory card. It’s the smallest, has no moving parts and I can store it much easier.
Side note: The memory card carry case exists, and I’ll be buying one of those eventually as well. The example case on the link can hold up to 20 cards. I’d prefer a thicker one that can hold 50, but haven’t been able to find such a product (if you find one, please feel free to link to it in a comment). And for those of you who would say, “There is no way I’d ever fill a case like that”, that’s what people said about CDs back when they were new, and people fill those up routinely.
Anyway, moving data off discs and on to memory cards can be done in any number of ways, but I’m going to give the example of the most convenient way. I’ll say up front that this is NOT the fastest way to do it, but it is the easiest, management-wise.
Modern memory cards as noted above can hold several DVD’s worth of data, and the way I’m migrating disc data these days is by ISO file, and then access it later via mounted ISO as a drive letter.
These are the tools I use (all free):
* ImgBurn
* Virtual CloneDrive (alternative: ISODisk)
With ImgBurn it really doesn’t get any easier. Pop in a disc, launch ImgBurn and mash the big “Create image file from disc” button:
Follow the steps and you’ve got your ISO in just a few minutes.
With Virtual CloneDrive, that allows you to simply double-click an ISO to mount it. For example, I have a copy of an old IBM OS/2 Warp 4 disc:
(The icon is of a sheep because that’s the icon Virtual CloneDrive uses.)
I just double-click that and ta-da, it’s mounted:
When I’m finished with the image, I right-click the Virtual CloneDrive icon in the tray, unmount, and then I can safely remove the storage medium without corrupting the ISO:
Known issues when backing up data this way
Yes, there are things you need to know if copying data to memory cards the ISO-file way.
Copy-protected stuff is a pain in the ass to deal with
If your intent is to copy a modern game or DVD movie, the tools listed above won’t help you and you’ll have to seek out other means of creating your disc images. And no, I won’t tell you how to do that because it’s not exactly legal.
Some older software that requires an optical drive to work may not work as a mounted image
Fortunately there aren’t too many older software titles that absolutely require a physical optical drive to work, but again, yeah, you may run into this issue. This is why you should always test your disc images by mounting them before storing permanently.
Example: Some really old discs of Microsoft Office (like some editions of Office 97) simply won’t work when used as a disc image.
“Bit rot” can still happen on memory cards just the same as it does on optical discs
Bit rot (sometimes known as “data rot”) is a real thing, but fortunately with memory cards it’s not nearly as much of a problem compared to optical discs.
The best way to use memory cards for long-term storage is to purposely use SD-sized cards with miniSD cards mounted in them, for the reason that the miniSD’s contacts don’t get scraped when the card is inserted into the card reader’s slot.
For example, let’s say one day you pop in a memory card you wrote data to a few years back, and it won’t read. The first course of action should be to move the miniSD card to another SD housing, and the vast majority of the time the card will spring back to life and you can get to the data you wrote before. It’s most likely true the contacts on the SD card simply wore out or perhaps tarnished to the point of being unusable from natural decay. That’s not a problem since the miniSD card was protected inside the SD housing the whole time, so its contacts are still pretty much as good as the day they were new. Move the mini card to another SD housing, and problem solved.
Should you start moving data off your CDs and DVDs to memory cards now?
Yes. Memory cards may cost more, but they’re much better in the long run for holding your valuable data because they have no moving parts, and are not nearly as susceptible to bit rot as optical discs are.
Also, chances are by this point you’ve got some optical discs that are old enough to show the first signs of bit rot (does the data side look “cloudy”?), so it’s in your best interest to start migrating that data to memory cards.
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This works only if you don’t have hundreds of dvd discs to move over. Which makes this moot. I have at least 1TB of burnt discs. Way too much money for cards. Gotta wait another 10 years to do this.
You basically have the exact same problem that many corporations do, where they have several thousands of tape backups which would take at least a solid year to transfer over. Someone would have to be hired full-time just to do the job. The only advantage is that tape can last 30 years, so they have the luxury of time. Optical discs on the other hand can start having the aluminum separate from the plastic (3 years for cheap brand, 7-10 years for good brand). In 10 years your discs may all be completely unreadable because of bubble formations; you’ll see the first signs of this on the disc edge. Even if you store the discs in a proper environment, it will happen. You can wait if you wish and that’s your decision, but I wouldn’t wait 10 years.
Agreed. I also have 100s of cds and dvds from the past 17 years. It would take weeks to transfer it all. And the cost. I can buy 50 or 100 blank discs for next to nothing, while a bunch of flash memory would cost a whole lot more.
My only worry with memory cards is obsolesence. Optical drives have been around for a few decades already and are still around. In the same period of time we have been through several generations of formats incompatible among each other and the older ones are no longer around with only Compact Flash, SD and Memory Stick still going. My 10-year old CDs with pictures are still readable without errors. I have about 150 GB worth of pictures stored on optical disks plus about the same amount split between my hard drive and an external drive which are good candidates for storage in memory cards.
The only advice I can give here is to look around you. Or to be more specific, look at what’s for sale on store shelves concerning computers. The laptops and netbooks far outweigh what’s on the shelves compared to traditional PCs, and of course there’s the tablet. While many laptops/netbooks have no optical drive and tablets absolutely have no optical drive, they all do have card slots. I know of no new laptop or netbook that doesn’t have a card slot. Many tablets have card slots. Many smartphones either have a slot or “lay-down flap” method of using memory cards. Digital cameras and camcorders almost all have card slots.
What you can take from this is that there are literally many thousands of devices that have a card slot but no optical drive interface to speak of, so I can assure you that the tech won’t be doing obsolete at any time soon. The optical drive however, given the fact it’s being seen less and less in newer devices, is on the way to being obsolete at a frighteningly fast rate.
Said another way: You’ll still be able to buy new devices to read your memory cards 10 years from now, and of that I have no doubt whatsoever. I can’t say that for optical however.
I love flash drives. I can carry lots of my favorite utilities with me on field calls instead of lugging a huge CD binder. The one thing I would add is that anything on a flash drive that you can’t afford to lose should also be on an old fashioned drive someplace. When a flash drive fails, they tend to give no warning and the data on them is usually beyond help.
Moving data off Dvd/Cd on to Sd cards maybe a little more robust, longer lived (more resistant to bit rot), compact solution, but it is still a physical library with its attendant short comings. An index has to be created & maintained, cards have to be labeled, filed in a physical storage system ( wallet ect), taken out & returned. If you have a family then managing this library can be a challenge! (kids lose dvd’s put them in the wrong boxes nintendo game cards where even more fun so could sd cards !) Rather than just sd cards, would not the use of cheaper external hard drives be an intersting complimentary alternative? Easier Digital indexing, easy to back up locally & offsite, placed on home network or even your own cloud & the kids can’t physically lose it!