On 02/02/2011 11:07 AM, Chris Jones wrote:
I burn my backups to regular single-layer DVD's once in a while. DVD+RW is what I use, but now it looks like I'm flirting with their limit in terms of capacity.. In the long run, this probably means that I need to review my backup policies, maybe separating /home from the rest of the system, but this has made me curious as to what dual-layer DVD burners/media may offer. I didn't find much in terms of easy-to-digest documentation, and I'm under the impression that dual-layer DVD's are WORM-only.. IOW multiple writes are not supported (?). Sounds like they're meant for audio/video stuff rather than really useful as a backup medium, no? Do some of you people still use DVD's as an external medium for backups..? Has anyone run into this problem and come up with a solution that's practical, simple, and elegant? Thanks for your comments, cj
My comments probably won't be very helpful to you. I seem to be at about the same point as you, with respect to use of optical discs for backup purposes. I use them only for the really important stuff that I want backed up to a separate system, an external portable hard drive, AND to optical disc.
I bought a cakebox of DVD+R(DL) discs thinking that I could just keep on using xfburn. Unfortunately, xfburn isn't interested. I've only managed to use brasero to burn a large (> 4.3 GB) tar.gz file to a dual layer disc, and the results of hashing the file on the DL disc didn't match the hash of the original file. So, I've started splitting my archive files and burning them to single-layer discs.
I'd love to be able to use the dual layer discs. And I'd even consider buying and using a BluRay drive -- if that would offer a valid solution for burning my data in one go. But I wonder if BR isn't multimedia-centric in the same way as dual layer DVD+R(DL).
I don't ever do multi-session burning, though. I just do single track-at-once burns. I've run into too many issues in the past with borked ToC (though that was under Windows). I'm a simple guy. If it bit me once without what I consider to be good cause, I don't "pet" it again.
;-) Regards, Gilbert