What activity is hardest on a hard drive

[bigandy]

I know Hi Ho, I was just playing devil's advocate. I couldn't help myself seeing as GLC mentioned conspiracy theories.

[waiting]

Since the life of a hard drive is unknown.... it becomes necessary to back up everything we need. Do you back up on another exterior hard drive? Or do you back up using CD's or DVD's? Which is the most permanent back up?

[Hi Ho]

CD's and DVD's are totally permanent (unless they are damaged or cheap media is used). Hard drives can fail and are suseptible to damage from strong magnets, shock, etc.

[waiting]

HiHo: thanks for info......one more question please....I understand CD's and DVD's can get corrupted ... My question is: how do they get corrupted?

[Hi Ho]

CD's and DVD's can get corrupted either during the burning process or from physical damage. If you have a good quality burner and don't multi-task you shouldn't have any burning errors. Use good quality media (TDK, Verbatim, Memorex, etc.) and store discs in a case and away from the sun or high temperatures and they should last for a very, very long time. I use CD-RW's for backup so I don't have to use new CD's every time. I need a DVD burner though. It takes 26 CD's to backup my photos and music.

[Kov-Ice]

Corruption may occur during the original burn. Tho not likely, I like to double-check that the burn was correct. Otherwise, I think it's simply physical stress that may corrupt like HiHo mentioned - scratched, warped, etc.

For back-up purposes, I like to have anything I want to keep on two separate HDDs, with an extra copy on optical disc. Really important stuff should even be kept off-site if possible.

[waiting]

HiHo: You mentioned not to "multi-task".........Whats multitasking? Is multitasking writing to the same disc several times?

Kov-Ice: You mentioned extra copies on "optical disc"....Are optical discs CD or DVD's?

Please fogive such basic questions.

[Hi Ho]

Multi-tasking is when you're doing several things at once with the PC. Say you're burning a CD, listening to music, browsing the web, doing a virus scan, and watching a movie. With a faster system it's not very likely that you'll ruin the CD because mewer drives have buffers to prevent errors. The chance is still there though and I wouldn't risk it.

You mentioned extra copies on "optical disc"....Are optical discs CD or DVD's?

Yes, optical discs are CD's and DVD's.

[cuog]

Originally Posted by glc I think that's a conspiracy theory. Why would a manufacturer intentionally try to get a reputation for building unreliable drives? If anything, they are trying to use advanced technology to build the biggest drives they can as cheap as they can to be competitive in the market. That's what killed the "Deathstar" - that was the first drive on the market with a glass substrate material for the platters instead of (I think) aluminum, and they jumped the gun before field testing the technology as well as they should have. The magnetic material had a nasty tendency to flake off of the glass, and they were very prone to physical shock damage.

Aluminum is not magnetic so i doubt thats what they use,

I also have had the Hd in my sig running a bunch for almost ten years and its still running strong

[waiting]

HiHo: When I burn to a CD or DVD.....I go into msconfig and disable my start up menu.
I even disable Norton anti virus and then burn. How do you do it?
My processor is: Intel(R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU 3.20BHZ
Processor speed 3.12 GHZ
RAM 1024
WinXP Home Version 5.1.2600

[Hi Ho]

You don't need to do that at all. What I mean is don't use it excessively for other things while burning. I surf the net and listen to music while burning and I've never had a bad disc.

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by waiting HiHo: When I burn to a CD or DVD.....I go into msconfig and disable my start up menu. I even disable Norton anti virus and then burn. How do you do it? My processor is: Intel(R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU 3.20BHZ Processor speed 3.12 GHZ RAM 1024 WinXP Home Version 5.1.2600

With that kind of system there is definately no need to disable anything just to burn a cd. Like Hi Ho said, you can multitask, but don't multitask to the extent that your computer is slowing down to load things. You can surf the web, listen to music, play solitaire, etc., but don't try to open battlefield 2, minimize it to pull a networked avi file off your office pc then attempt to do some video editing. That would most likely make it skip. Pretty much don't try to overstress your system while you burn.

[amenx]

Originally Posted by waiting What activity is hardest on a hard drive--- 1. working with graphics 2. surfing net 3. word processing? Using WinXP home 512RAM 50free GB

Graphics is more CPU and memory intensive, word processing too but to a much lesser extent. Surfing net, yes, as it caches all activity to the HD.

Also if you have low RAM, you will see much more HD activity as the OS uses virtual memory (writing to the HD) to compensate.

Probably the most intensive HD activity is your disk defragmenter, which moves large amounts of data to get it properly positioned for quicker access.

[glc]

Aluminum is not magnetic so i doubt thats what they use,

Neither is glass. Platters are not solid magnetic material, they are coated.

[waiting]

Originally Posted by Hi Ho CD's and DVD's are totally permanent (unless they are damaged or cheap media is used). Hard drives can fail and are suseptible to damage from strong magnets, shock, etc.

I'm guessing that floppy's and zips are also "suseptible to damage from strong magnets, shock"????

In other words--- don't back up your IRS taxes on a floppy.

[Hi Ho]

Floppies and Zip disks aren't very suseptibal to shock but they aren't very reliable. I would never trust anything stored on a floppy to be there when I needed it. I don't know about Zip disks.

[glc]

Zips are subject to the "click of death".

http://grc.com/tip/clickdeath.htm

Of all the media available today, for safest long term storage, I'd go with CD-R or DVD+/-R, with no labels or writing on them, stored in jewel cases in an environmentally controlled and dark location .

[waiting]

Originally Posted by glc Zips are subject to the "click of death". http://grc.com/tip/clickdeath.htm Of all the media available today, for safest long term storage, I'd go with CD-R or DVD+/-R, with no labels or writing on them, stored in jewel cases in an environmentally controlled and dark location .

You mentioned "environmentally controlled"....How about Temperature? If the CD's were in a hot car in the summer and not in the sun....would the CD's be ruined? Does humidity make any difference?

Or could freezing cold weather ruin the CD's stored in a car in the winter?
Thanks..........George

[Kov-Ice]

I'm gonna go with "environmentally controlled" = temperature + humidity. Definitely heat can warp a disc. I'm not sure what ill effects freezing cold might have.

I do know that I store my music CDs in my car (in a storage case) year-round. I would not, however, make it a habit of storing CDs or DVDs containing pictures of my children or all of my important documents there. I can always buy more music.

[glc]

I sure would not store important stuff in my car. I was referring to safe long term storage of your backups.

[waverider]

Hi GLC, why a dark location ? does light hurt a CD/ DVD ?

[mairving]

Important safety tip:
Never have something that you really need backed up in only one location. In other words don't copy something to a CD and then delete it off your HD. Learned that one a while back when I had a zip drive that developed the click of death. Stuff that I had backed up on the zip drive and removed from the hard drive was permanently lost. Plus every zip disk that I put into the COD Zip drive also became corrupt and unusable. Quite a mean thing since you naturally put another disk in to see if the other disk was bad not realizing that it will corrupt that one.

[edfair]

How about 3 backups, 2 of which are off-site at swparate locations.

Ah yes, the infamous "click of death".

Definite aluminum platters. My oldest kid did quality control stuff at one of Seagate's suppliers. Seagate caught up regularly and rejected lots for quality problems. Seagate would get a big order, and somehow the platters that previously failed incoming would mysteriously pass when they repackaged and shipped them back in.

Anybody in dire need of a Shugart 10mb MFM. Lots of time on it, but it was one of those "oldies, but goodies" that should have some good life left. I had about 8 years if I recall. Only used 8mb, so the back end should be like new.

[waiting]

If you were taking an extended trip across the USA....and you wanted to back up your photos on CD/DVD's......How would you store the CD's or DVD's? What storage container would you recommend? And why.....thanks

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by waiting If you were taking an extended trip across the USA....and you wanted to back up your photos on CD/DVD's......How would you store the CD's or DVD's? What storage container would you recommend? And why.....thanks

Just stick them in a cd case / bag and keep them in your car while it's running. Just don't stick them up on your dashboard and let the sun burn them or anywhere else extremely hot. They're not that fragile -- just be careful with them.

[glc]

I have seen sunlight coming in a window ruin a whole spindle of CD-R's.

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by glc I have seen sunlight coming in a window ruin a whole spindle of CD-R's.

Well how long did they sit in the sunlight? I take cd's on vacation all the time -- last trip was to Maine, and the former two were out west to the Rockies and Yellowstone. My good friend keeps a case full in his truck, and he's pretty violent with the case. If you protect them and keep them in a temperature controlled environment they should be fine.

[Hi Ho]

I have burned CD's in my car that have been there for years and they still work fine.

[glc]

All this may be true and I'm not doubting what you all say, but I am referring to SAFE LONG TERM storage of important data. You want to give the media the best chances of survival.

On a tangent, Hi Ho - I happen to have a computer out in the garage with a Deer power supply that's 7 years old and it still works fine. Does that mean I'll say it's safe to trust your components to a Deer power supply? Heck no! Will I trust my important data on CD-R's stored in a car? Heck no!

[Hi Ho]

On a tangent, Hi Ho - I happen to have a computer out in the garage with a Deer power supply that's 7 years old and it still works fine. Does that mean I'll say it's safe to trust your components to a Deer power supply? Heck no! Will I trust my important data on CD-R's stored in a car? Heck no!

I agree with you. I wouldn't trust my backup CD's in a car at all. I was just pointing out that CD's aren't that fragile.