Re: imaging software--disk dupers/MDISC etc

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

At 29/10/2013 02:55, you wrote:

> > Are you still using a Mac
> > platform to run Windows? 
>
> No, and that's the problem.


I wonder. Robin Harris in his Storage Bits column for ZD has been warning
about HFS instability for years, e.g.


> The Storage Bits take
> Apple designs fabulous hardware, but their reluctance to invest in a
> modern file system bodes ill for Mac power users. Adopting ZFS would have
> put them ahead of even ReFS, but that isn't in the cards anymore. The
> best we can hope for is that someone - Greenbytes? - offers ZFS as
> secondary storage for the Mac. But at least our data at rest will be
> safe. 


Not that NTFS doesn't have problems:


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/how-microsoft-puts-your-data-at-risk/169; eudora="autourl">
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/how-microsoft-puts-your-data-at-risk/169If you google the string /robin harris hfs ntfs/ you will get a lot
of interesting hits.


He also has interesting material on failure of SSDs, which most of us
assume are vastly more reliable than HDs. Apparently, you really want to
avoid power failure of SSDs! (with an uninterruptible power supply, for
desktops)


For users with a lot of crucial personal, business or creative data,
there is always the risk that a file will become corrupt without being
reported. This has happened to me more than once over the years.


I think the best solution is to do periodic snapshots that are never
updated. That way, if years later, an old but important file is
discovered to be corrupt or lost, you can go back to (say) a ten-year-old
backup and get the file back.


But what storage material is good for ten years?


Robin Harris was one of the first to publicize


http://www.mdisc.com/which is producing the world's only archival recordable DVDs, with
archival blu-rays on the way.


Maybe it's a mistake to believe in anything, but mdisc seems the
only sensible choice now available for those of us who are serious about
preserving our data indefinitely.