image storage

[ken bolton]

which would be better to store my photo images on, a hard disc cd-r, cd-rw or a floppy? will one loose photo quality more than any other or are they about the same? a cd-rw and floppy will let me store image files at various times where a cd-r will not because once the cd is closed thats it. right?

 

[Petteri Sulonen]

which would be better to store my photo images on, a hard disc
cd-r, cd-rw or a floppy? will one loose photo quality more than any
other or are they about the same? a cd-rw and floppy will let me
store image files at various times where a cd-r will not because
once the cd is closed thats it. right?

The images are digital. In other words, the quality will be the same no matter how you store them. The differences are:

(1) How easy is it to write and read your pictures from the medium
(2) How many pictures you can store on it
(3) How long will they be readable

Forget a floppy. You can barely fit one high-quality image from today's cameras on it, and they're very prone to errors.

Normally, you'll put your pictures on your hard disk to start with. Then you should make back-ups. A CD-R is probably the best choice: they're cheap, you can fit a fair number of pics on a single CD-R, they're removable, and they're fairly reliable. You should have at least two copies of your stuff stored at separate locations at all times; that way, it's very unlikely that you'll lose both. In other words, if you keep them on your hard disk, burn the onto a CD-R and take the CD-R somewhere else for safe keeping. If you delete them from your hard disk to make space, make another copy on a CD-R first, and put that somewhere other than the first CD-R.

Also, copy all your CD-R's every five years or so: the media degrade with time. In five years, CD-R's will almost certainly be gone anyway; DVD-R's or even their successor will be the replacement medium.

Petteri
--
http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/

 

[David Barkin]

Hi Petteri

Good post, but Mr. Boltan is under the impression that once you burn a few images to a CDR the disk is finished.

Mr. Boltan, when you burn a CDR you have a choice to write the disk or write the session. If you choose write the disk, the disk is finished. If you choose write the session then you can keep adding incrementally until the CDR is full.

Dave

which would be better to store my photo images on, a hard disc
cd-r, cd-rw or a floppy? will one loose photo quality more than any
other or are they about the same? a cd-rw and floppy will let me
store image files at various times where a cd-r will not because
once the cd is closed thats it. right?

The images are digital. In other words, the quality will be the
same no matter how you store them. The differences are:

(1) How easy is it to write and read your pictures from the medium
(2) How many pictures you can store on it
(3) How long will they be readable

Forget a floppy. You can barely fit one high-quality image from
today's cameras on it, and they're very prone to errors.

Normally, you'll put your pictures on your hard disk to start with.
Then you should make back-ups. A CD-R is probably the best choice:
they're cheap, you can fit a fair number of pics on a single CD-R,
they're removable, and they're fairly reliable. You should have at
least two copies of your stuff stored at separate locations at all
times; that way, it's very unlikely that you'll lose both. In other
words, if you keep them on your hard disk, burn the onto a CD-R and
take the CD-R somewhere else for safe keeping. If you delete them
from your hard disk to make space, make another copy on a CD-R
first, and put that somewhere other than the first CD-R.

Also, copy all your CD-R's every five years or so: the media
degrade with time. In five years, CD-R's will almost certainly be
gone anyway; DVD-R's or even their successor will be the
replacement medium.

Petteri
--
http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/

 

[ken bolton]

thanks dave, i'll keep that in mind. i just went on a hot air balloon ride on wednesday and took a few photo's (about 20 or so). now i know how to put them on a disc without wasting all the empty space if i burn write the session only. great site, you fella's are a big help. many thanks to you also Petteri. any bit of info helps

Good post, but Mr. Boltan is under the impression that once you
burn a few images to a CDR the disk is finished.

Mr. Boltan, when you burn a CDR you have a choice to write the disk
or write the session. If you choose write the disk, the disk is
finished. If you choose write the session then you can keep adding
incrementally until the CDR is full.

Dave

which would be better to store my photo images on, a hard disc
cd-r, cd-rw or a floppy? will one loose photo quality more than any
other or are they about the same? a cd-rw and floppy will let me
store image files at various times where a cd-r will not because
once the cd is closed thats it. right?

The images are digital. In other words, the quality will be the
same no matter how you store them. The differences are:

(1) How easy is it to write and read your pictures from the medium
(2) How many pictures you can store on it
(3) How long will they be readable

Forget a floppy. You can barely fit one high-quality image from
today's cameras on it, and they're very prone to errors.

Normally, you'll put your pictures on your hard disk to start with.
Then you should make back-ups. A CD-R is probably the best choice:
they're cheap, you can fit a fair number of pics on a single CD-R,
they're removable, and they're fairly reliable. You should have at
least two copies of your stuff stored at separate locations at all
times; that way, it's very unlikely that you'll lose both. In other
words, if you keep them on your hard disk, burn the onto a CD-R and
take the CD-R somewhere else for safe keeping. If you delete them
from your hard disk to make space, make another copy on a CD-R
first, and put that somewhere other than the first CD-R.

Also, copy all your CD-R's every five years or so: the media
degrade with time. In five years, CD-R's will almost certainly be
gone anyway; DVD-R's or even their successor will be the
replacement medium.

Petteri
--
http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/

 

[SoftD100]

another option for writing to cds is using packet writing so you dont have to wory about the session thing and also you will loose about 10meg of space each time a session is added for the directory structure etc,with packet writing you wont have this problem but the cd is not readable in normal drives untill it is closed off by finilizing

myself i use DVD+R/RW drive that gives me 4.7G of storage,on each DVD i store the original raw file,the full size modified JPEGS and a smaller 1/3 resalution JPEG for the web/general viewing

as far as the cds/dvds loosing data i have some cdrs about 8years old

and have bad sectors now so would be considered unreadable but you just need a program like cdrdiagnostic to read at a low level to revover the data

it is always a good idea to verify the data written to cd (usually a option in cd burning sftware) when you do it as not all cdr's are compatable with all writers and writing them at high speeds compounds the problem,it may seem like it burned okay but you will be suprised how many times a error or 2 will be in the data with low quality cds or ones rated higher than they can really take.

Hi Petteri

Good post, but Mr. Boltan is under the impression that once you
burn a few images to a CDR the disk is finished.

Mr. Boltan, when you burn a CDR you have a choice to write the disk
or write the session. If you choose write the disk, the disk is
finished. If you choose write the session then you can keep adding
incrementally until the CDR is full.

not entirely true , when you create the first session you have to tell it that it will be a multisession cd (although this is th edefault by most burning programs)

Dave

which would be better to store my photo images on, a hard disc
cd-r, cd-rw or a floppy? will one loose photo quality more than any
other or are they about the same? a cd-rw and floppy will let me
store image files at various times where a cd-r will not because
once the cd is closed thats it. right?

The images are digital. In other words, the quality will be the
same no matter how you store them. The differences are:

(1) How easy is it to write and read your pictures from the medium
(2) How many pictures you can store on it
(3) How long will they be readable

Forget a floppy. You can barely fit one high-quality image from
today's cameras on it, and they're very prone to errors.

Normally, you'll put your pictures on your hard disk to start with.
Then you should make back-ups. A CD-R is probably the best choice:
they're cheap, you can fit a fair number of pics on a single CD-R,
they're removable, and they're fairly reliable. You should have at
least two copies of your stuff stored at separate locations at all
times; that way, it's very unlikely that you'll lose both. In other
words, if you keep them on your hard disk, burn the onto a CD-R and
take the CD-R somewhere else for safe keeping. If you delete them
from your hard disk to make space, make another copy on a CD-R
first, and put that somewhere other than the first CD-R.

Also, copy all your CD-R's every five years or so: the media
degrade with time. In five years, CD-R's will almost certainly be
gone anyway; DVD-R's or even their successor will be the
replacement medium.

Petteri
--
http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/

 

[dmlove]

another option for writing to cds is using packet writing

What is "packet writing?

Davia
C-700
pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/dmlove

 

[ken bolton]

you got me too. i never heard of packet writing. what is it?

another option for writing to cds is using packet writing

What is "packet writing?

Davia
C-700
pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/dmlove

 

[SoftD100]

it is a mean to which the cd is "formated" in a certain way as to allow you to keep adding data to the cd just like a floppy (but not remove) but without the overheads of multiple sessions (loss of space for each session)

one small thing is that the cd can only be read in a cdw drive with the correct software (same packet writing software as you used) until the point where you finalise the cd ,then any drive can read it.

i do recall that adaptec did make a program that allowed you to read the cds in computers without packet writing software installed though

there is 2 programs that are widely used , directCD by roxio (usually with easycd creator)and InCD (i think its called) by nero (packaged with nero and burners often)

the sony mavica CD's cameras use packet writing thats why you have to finilize them before they can be read in noraml pc's

http://www.nero.com
http://www.roxio.com

another option for writing to cds is using packet writing

What is "packet writing?

Davia
C-700
pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/dmlove

 

[SoftD100]

i forgot to add that you can delete~~ fils from the cd but the file isnt realy deleted it is just marked out when the cd is finilized so you cannot see it

although you can use cdr diagnostic to get to the files if realy needed

one small thing is that the cd can only be read in a cdw drive with
the correct software (same packet writing software as you used)
until the point where you finalise the cd ,then any drive can read
it.

i do recall that adaptec did make a program that allowed you to
read the cds in computers without packet writing software installed
though

there is 2 programs that are widely used , directCD by roxio
(usually with easycd creator)and InCD (i think its called) by nero
(packaged with nero and burners often)

the sony mavica CD's cameras use packet writing thats why you have
to finilize them before they can be read in noraml pc's

http://www.nero.com
http://www.roxio.com

another option for writing to cds is using packet writing

What is "packet writing?

Davia
C-700
pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/dmlove