URGENT! I need advice on backing up my DVD's

[spartacus-2]

Thanks in advance for reading my post and for any help you can provide me. I am an old fart and all of this new technology has my head spinning! I have recently burned all of my home movies, wedding, and tons of footage I have shot since 1985 at various local dirt stock car tracks from VCR tapes onto DVD's using a Panasonic DVD Video Recorder DMR-E85H. I was WAY TOO afraid to attempt to do this dubbing on my computer which is why I did it on the Panasonic DVD Recorder. I now have about 2,000 DVD's which I have burned over the past 2 years using this method. My problem is that I have read recently where they are saying that these DVD's may not last even 5 years. Whether or not this is true, these are memories that I simply CANNOT afford to lose, so I figured that a backup source would be a good idea. I had to throw away the tapes after dubbing them to DVD because I live in a small apartment and do not have the room to store both. Anyway, I am searching for an affordable way to back up these discs, but I know absolutely NOTHING about this type of technology. I am thinking I may need a couple of external hard drives? If this is true how do I go about that? Do they need to be connected all the time or can I store them in a file cabinet when not in use? How long do the hard drives last? Will I need a program on the external hard drives to be able to download the DVD's onto them? There won't be any editing ever involved, but I would like each DVD I download to the hard drive to be saved exactly the way it is on the DVD so that when I do have to actually reburn a disc from the harddrive it will look exactly the same way they do now (and record at the same speed I have them at now which is different on each DVD.) I would also like my menus to remain intact. Some of these DVD's are a bit fuzzy due to VCR tape deterioration so a cheap program to increase the quality of some of these DVD's might not be a bad idea. I hope I am not being too confusing, but I am confused as well. I also read on your forums about compression to save hard drive space. Is this a good idea? Is there any chance of dmage or loss to the DVD footage if I do this? If it is a good idea how do I do this? I am sorry about all of these questions but, as I said earlier, I no nothing about any of this. I am just a poor shmuk who doesn't want to lose his cherished memories. Thank you for your time in reading this and also for any help you can give me. I don't know where else to turn and it took me hours of searching just to find you guys. Any help you could give me would be GREATLY appreciated. If it is OK for you to e-mail me your advice that would be great. MY e-mail address is spartacus-2 AT msn DOT com if not please reply to this post and hopefully I will be able to find it again to read your answer. Thank you VERY MUCH!

[alberrosidus]

Wow, sounds like your're in a bit of a bind.
First, I've never heard the 5-year thing about DVDs. Maybe that's how long they last at blockbuster or something (though I'd bet it's even less than that for popular ones). Unless you're constantly playing the DVDs, I don't think you need to worry about the DVDs deteriorating for a while.

If, however, you're still worried and want to backup your DVDs on hard drive, then you're going to have quite a storage problem on your hands. Assuming your DVDs are single layer (4.7GB...pretty standard for home burning) then you'll need 9 and a half terabytes of storage space (A lot!), but probably it'll be less than that because your disks probably aren't filled to the max.

I don't know of an economical way to get that much storage space, but you can try places like <a href="www.newegg.com">Newegg</a> or <a href="www.mwave.com">mwave</a> to get hard drives. I recommend Western Digital or Seagate as they've worked for me and I've heard that they tend to have the lowest failure rates (haven't failed on me yet). It's usually cheaper to buy hard drives and enclosures separately, and installation is simple, but if you don't feel confident, I'd recommend <a href="http://www.wdmybook.com/">Western Digital Mybooks</a>. Check out the pro edition II (you'd only need 9 or 10 of those, ha).

It sounds like you'll just be using these HDs for long-term storage, so they'll just be sitting in some closet, unpowered. I imagine they'll last a long time that way.

I can't remember what other questions you have. Feel free to PM (private message) me if you have further questions (but I think you have to have 10 posts to do so).

[Westly32]

Determining the life of burned dvds is not yet an exact science, as this is all still pretty new. But the one thing most experienced people (which I'm not, btw.. ) agree on, is that the better the blank dvd media used, the better the life expectancy is. Plus store them in a cool place, keep out of the sun, etc. If you used quality blanks, you shouldn't worry too much.
You can always copy each dvd to another after a couple of years, if you want. Just start with a few of the first dvds you made, view them, scan thru them, and use your pc to copy to newer blanks.

[Figaro14]

I'd suggest doing a clone backup

I have a Panasonic DVD recorder and I've had some problems with my dvds I've made on it over time. I've found a quick solution and one that also improves the compatablility factor. Clone a copy of the dvd using your dvd burner and dvd rom. (I use Nero for making cloned copies). For some reason a cloned copy of a dvd (with all the menus, etc.) is far more compatable with other players than the original that you recorded on the dvd recorder. And you have a safe back up. Be sure you also use high quality blanks.

[doctorhardware]

This may not be the same but I have CD's that are well over 30 years old and still play like the day I bought them. I have also read that CD's do not last that long either. I say BS.