The Nikon D3 makes everyone's life better, even mine!!!

BobF DeleteThis @Can.com wrote:
> On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:27:01 -0400, Alan Browne
> <alan.browne DeleteThis @freelunchvideotron.ca> wrote:

>> Again: For long life buy the so-called "gold" Verbatim disks (CD and
>> DVD). In benign conditions the data will last well over 100 years.
>>
>> I just ordered an IOmega 1 TB drive (actually 2 500 GB drives in one
>> unit) that can be configured RAID 0 or 1, (I'll use 0) and a couple
>> other modes. It has Firewire 800 which is very fast.
>>
>> I'm beginning to believe that hot backing up is really the only way to
>> go. Managing backup volumes is tedious. It will be interesting to see
>> how well Apple Time Machine works.
>
> Another thing I an considering is saving as RAR archives, with massive Par2 loss
> protection... I've ran some tests on this stuff, and once set up it works like
> magic! You can make a 4G archive of photos, save it as perhaps 100 .RAR pieces,
> with a few dozen Par2 files set to 100%, save everything on 2 discs, and you can
> be missing half the files on each disk and still get everything back!
>
> It's worth learning this stuff!

I agree. That is something I've read about, but I haven't tried yet.
I'm not convinced, however, that that would allow recovery of data from
an old DVD (20 yr old) as too much would be damaged in too many places.

I'll be ordering some 'gold' DVD's shortly for archival purposes and I
might double down my bets with RAR/PAR2. My 120 scans run 500 MB each,
so I only get 9 images per DVD. On the other hand I only get one or two
really great images per roll of 120...

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On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:56:53 -0400, Alan Browne
<alan.browne.DeleteThis@freelunchvideotron.ca> wrote:

>BobF@Can.com wrote:
>> On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:27:01 -0400, Alan Browne
>> <alan.browne.DeleteThis@freelunchvideotron.ca> wrote:
>
>>> Again: For long life buy the so-called "gold" Verbatim disks (CD and
>>> DVD). In benign conditions the data will last well over 100 years.
>>>
>>> I just ordered an IOmega 1 TB drive (actually 2 500 GB drives in one
>>> unit) that can be configured RAID 0 or 1, (I'll use 0) and a couple
>>> other modes. It has Firewire 800 which is very fast.
>>>
>>> I'm beginning to believe that hot backing up is really the only way to
>>> go. Managing backup volumes is tedious. It will be interesting to see
>>> how well Apple Time Machine works.
>>
>> Another thing I an considering is saving as RAR archives, with massive Par2 loss
>> protection... I've ran some tests on this stuff, and once set up it works like
>> magic! You can make a 4G archive of photos, save it as perhaps 100 .RAR pieces,
>> with a few dozen Par2 files set to 100%, save everything on 2 discs, and you can
>> be missing half the files on each disk and still get everything back!
>>
>> It's worth learning this stuff!
>
>I agree. That is something I've read about, but I haven't tried yet.
>I'm not convinced, however, that that would allow recovery of data from
>an old DVD (20 yr old) as too much would be damaged in too many places.

The whole point to the PAR2 files is the ability to repair any amount of
damage... you set the amount of "damage toleration" when you create the files.
If you want 100% protection, for example, you would end up with 500m worth of
Par2 files protecting a 500m data file... Normally you don't go this extreme,
but you could... Also you save the data files in pieces, perhaps 2m each, so
the loss of important header info can only disrupt 2m worth of data. And the
Par2 files are also in pieces, usually doubling in size... EG 100k, 200k, 500k,
1m etc etc so that when the program tells you you need 1m of repair data, you
can go get the 2m size Par2 file. Of course, if all Par2 files are available
it's automatic. Also you can be missing some of the Par2 files as well and it
may not matter.

One thought I had was to make a DVD set of picture RAR's and another set of DVD
Par2 files, and keep them in separate locations...

Another idea I tried was to put my current (new un backed) photos on a DVD, and
make Par2 files the same size as the free room left to burn... EG if I had 3g of
photos, I could make 1.5g of Par2s...

I've downloaded 2gig movies from the newsgroups, notorious for missing pieces,
and if I can find enough Par2 files, I've always corrected them. The general
rule is that if you are missing 10m of data, you need a little more than 10m of
Par2 files. The magic part is that it doesn't seem to matter which ones!

>I'll be ordering some 'gold' DVD's shortly for archival purposes and I
>might double down my bets with RAR/PAR2. My 120 scans run 500 MB each,
>so I only get 9 images per DVD. On the other hand I only get one or two
>really great images per roll of 120...

Do you really need that much resolution? It depends on your final use of the
picture I guess...

Where do you get these DVD's? Price? Is it worth it to use 2 discs instead of 1
for backup?