With the demise of Apple's SuperDrive, we reminisce on our final homemade optical discs.
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Ars asks: What was the last CD or DVD you burned?
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Just two weeks ago. Burned a BD for archival photo storage.
It's the only way I know of that isn't subject to something nasty like ransom-ware to preserve data. Mirrored drives and NASes remain vulnerable, and no I don't care to give anyone else access to my data by storing it "in the cloud".
It's the only way I know of that isn't subject to something nasty like ransom-ware to preserve data. Mirrored drives and NASes remain vulnerable, and no I don't care to give anyone else access to my data by storing it "in the cloud".
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Germany: Required to submit the thesis in a durable digital format. Burned master's thesis and relatives' PhD thesis on DVD.
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Within the last month I just purchased a new LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray / M-DISC Burner (and an OWC Mercury Pro Optical Drive Enclosure) to sit next to my new Mac Studio M2, along with two spindles of Verbatim BD-R (MABL discs). (You can buy them separately: https://www.amazon.com/OWC-Mercury-Blu-ray-Write-Solution/dp/B06XRCCV44 and https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Internal-Rewriter-WH14NS40/dp/B007VPGL5U?th=1 or together: https://www.amazon.com/OWC-Mercury-Blu-ray-Write-Solution/dp/B01IPH6170 or https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MR3UBDRW16/)
I think optical media--particularly archival grade (M-DISC or equivalent) BD-R discs--are underappreciated. As others have noted, high quality BD-R discs have two very beneficial features: (1) they are much less prone to degradation than flash storage (USB drives/SSDs) and traditional hard drives, and (2) they are beyond the reach of ransomware/malware.
First, optical discs are great for longterm archival storage because they are stable and have good longevity compared to other media when stored in good conditions (i.e., in a dark box in an air conditioned space with low humidity). For a discussion of M-DISCS and other archival grade Blu-Ray discs, see:
View: https://danielrosehill.medium.com/on-the-great-m-disc-vs-regular-blu-ray-debate-4318eaf37ee5
. See also the following for a good example (similar to my practice) for reliably archiving data to BD-R discs:
View: https://danielrosehill.medium.com/my-optical-media-digital-archiving-workflow-v2-02-24-b15e35c3a17d
Second, optical media, by nature, has the benefit of being WORM (write-once, read-many) and offline. Once data is burned to an optical disc, it is safe from ransomware/malware.
My practice is basically:
I think optical media--particularly archival grade (M-DISC or equivalent) BD-R discs--are underappreciated. As others have noted, high quality BD-R discs have two very beneficial features: (1) they are much less prone to degradation than flash storage (USB drives/SSDs) and traditional hard drives, and (2) they are beyond the reach of ransomware/malware.
First, optical discs are great for longterm archival storage because they are stable and have good longevity compared to other media when stored in good conditions (i.e., in a dark box in an air conditioned space with low humidity). For a discussion of M-DISCS and other archival grade Blu-Ray discs, see:
View: https://danielrosehill.medium.com/on-the-great-m-disc-vs-regular-blu-ray-debate-4318eaf37ee5
. See also the following for a good example (similar to my practice) for reliably archiving data to BD-R discs:
View: https://danielrosehill.medium.com/my-optical-media-digital-archiving-workflow-v2-02-24-b15e35c3a17d
Second, optical media, by nature, has the benefit of being WORM (write-once, read-many) and offline. Once data is burned to an optical disc, it is safe from ransomware/malware.
My practice is basically:
- Burn archives of personal photo collection
- Collect data into a bundles of up to 80% of the capacity of the optical disc (leaving 20% - 30% for ECC data)
- In general, I would burn a new disc for each new calendar year to add the previous year's personal photos/videos.
- Generate checksums for each photo/video file
- Use dintech (https://eclecticlight.co/dintch/) or similar tool for Mac to tag each photo/video file with its SHA-256 digest
- Include a copy of the checksums in the bundle to burn to the disc
- Also include a copy of the checksums in my disc backup catalog
- Create a .iso image for burning to optical disc
- (optional) Encrypt the files
- Use dvdisaster (see: https://dvdisaster.jcea.es/ and https://github.com/speed47/dvdisaster) to generate error correction codes (ECCs) based on Reed-Solomon error correction using the RS03 mode to store ECC on both the disc being burned and to a separate location (e.g., initially to my hard drive and then backed up to my primary NAS / cloud backup systems).
- Burn two copies of each disc and verify each disc
- Store one at home and one at a remote home of friends/family. Both sets of discs stored in a closed (dark) storage container in an air conditioned space.
- Maintain a catalog of the burned discs, including the data burned, the location of the backup ECC data, and the date the data was last verified
- (planned) Periodically verify both sets of discs--maybe every 2-3 years. (To do this, I would verify my local set, then take it to the friends/family location and swap the two sets and bring home the remote set and verify it.)
- Collect data into a bundles of up to 80% of the capacity of the optical disc (leaving 20% - 30% for ECC data)
- Burn annual archive of my primary data collection (Documents, E-mails, Google Takeout downloads, etc.)
- This would include my primary Documents (Desktop, etc.) folders.
- I would also include a copy of my Thunderbird e-mail profile, Google Takeout downloads, etc.
- Use the same general process described above (but without generating checksums for every .eml file)
- But since these are annual archives, after initially testing the discs immediately after burning, there isn't really a need for subsequent testing/verification because the complete data set is re-burned every year, unlike my photo collection where I would not be regularly re-burning old photos (e..g, my year 2020 photo collection).
- Use Cryptomator, VeraCrypt, or other tool to encrypt data
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IncorrigibleTroll
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
I am aware of at least one very tiny niche record label whose CD releases are all individually burned by the label owner.
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Previous employer we had a group of about 12 that had a themed CD we would put together every 6 weeks. Had to come up with 10 songs that fit that theme. That would be the last music CD. The last disk was probably Hiren's Boot, or Macrium Reflect.
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That's a reasonable approach.
Aouple of alternatives if you ever get in the mood:
1. Use a "backup server" where the backup server pulls the data and controls the retention such that if one the systems being backed up is hacked it cannot delete, overwrite or otherwise corrupt it's old backups.
Make sure your backup server uses different passwords and runs as few services as possible.
Since I use Linux it's easy:
My backup server just runs this script and pulls the data from the systems being backed up.
2. Backup to LTO tape.
Hardware is expensive even if you get it used from eBay but you're looking at 100GB to 18 TB per tape.
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Just a few years ago when I was working in a secure, network-isolated facility. The only approved way to get new software or data in was with a burned and finalized CD/DVD. I assume that hasn't changed and engineers continue to burn discs today.
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That's why it's not a one off situation. You are always backing up to media of one form or another and replacing spent media when it is no longer viable. This is why it is important to ensure that you can restore your backups. It doesn't matter what solution you use as long as you do the 3 2 1 Backup rule to the best of your ability and if the data is that important then backblaze may be a good solution for off site back up or Iron Mountain if you need HIPPA security or what not.
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IncorrigibleTroll
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
One backup copy for every ten tears you'd shed at the unrecoverable loss of the data strikes me as a decent rule of thumb.
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I have a favor to ask. Not a demand.
If you're going to link to scripts, even via a repository like Github, please enumerate the link. Just a professional preference that people should be actively told when they're being given a link to potentially active code.
I'd really appreciate that,
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I'm not sure I understand you mean by active code.
What I linked is the repository's main page.
It's not a link to the script file itself, much less a GitHub raw link.
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OK. Being a paranoid infosec guy, I didn't follow the link, but noted that the URL referred to the script.
Fair 'nuff.
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I see what you mean.
Next time I'll just write the actual link, specially as Ars actually pulls a summary.
https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup
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ZeDestructor
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
Surprisingly not that often, actually - for "newer" stuff you can usually get USB and/or networking support going and older stuff you use floppies (typically through a drive emulator).
For myself, my last burn was burning an XP image... to a BD-RE.... to get XP onto a recalcitrant 2012 machine that refused to install XP from a thumbdrive (older systems are fine, newer systems are fine. Just that specific one was not fine).
No spindles of -R media for me though - everything is RW or RE, for the simple reason that I don't need dozens of coasters cluttering up my life.
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We talked about using a little FM transmitter like the one I used to use with my pink netbook when we went on road trips. He wanted physical media and not "a device".
If I was driving it I would have gotten a Japanese car radio with a minidisc player that looks like it came from the cockpit of a Gundam but he really wanted the OEM look
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Last time: Two years ago. Bunch of CD/DVD for my computer exhibition. (Some encyclopedias and games mostly) Next time very soon. Need USB drivers for Win 95 PC at my exhibition that is now running...
You'd be surprised how much can be recovered.
Oh and whole bunch of CD and DVD drives.
You'd be surprised how much can be recovered.
All of them. Only those I damaged too much are exception. Oldest readable burned CDs are from 98. (and quite scratched too...)
Too bad it is likely infeasible to get them to me. I till have several functional drives and computers that can read them.I was at the library a bit ago, picking up some movies and a little girl was begging her dad to checkout a DVD copy of Frozen. He was trying in vain to explain to her that they have literally no way to watch it at home.
Similarly I found two 5.25" floppy disks with old Warcraft II maps I made probably in the 90s. But how am I supposed to recover those... Working drives are going for like $60 and I don't want them that bad.
Several boxes and whenever there is opportunity to buy more for cheap, I get them... Same goes for floppies.
Oh and whole bunch of CD and DVD drives.
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