Advice or experience required - Moving files from DVD backups to external d

[Orange Battery]

Back in 2004 I was a bit stupid and didn't really pay much attention to backups, I had them but they had no order or routine. One day I was very clever and deleted a partition containing most of my files.. recovery was limited as I used the partition for an XP install or testing Linux - maybe something else I was up to at the time.

I got everything that was important back, and realised the importance of CD and DVD backup. I now have around 300 data DVDs, everything on my system is backed up to DVD and a lot of my newer files from the last 4 or 5 years are on external drives as well. Instead of keeping files on DVD, I want to move them all to another external drive so they are easy to access, store and protect.

Im going to be using one of my old rigs to copy the data from each disc onto a new external drive which I purchased last week and secured via TrueCrypt.

What i would like to know is, how would you do this?

Do I put each disc in and copy the contents to its own disc specific folder?

Do I create ISO images of each disc and store them?

How do I make sure files have been copied correctly?

Is there software paid or free that can give me some automation?

Any experiences appreciated

[ozgeek]

I used to burn to DVDs but that's so ancient and chubbersome so I bought a couple external drives. I have 4 Seagate Expansion drives (one has been converted into an internal). two 1TB and two 2TB drives.

What I do is use the internal as my main data drive and then when I feel I need to back up, I just copy the contents of the data drive to each external drives. There's plenty of space left for TV recordings or downloads.

What you should do is to try to consolate all your dvds into one common folder (with subfolders) so you can just drag-copy this folder to other location.

[Hum]

I would still keep the DVDs as back-ups -- they are in many ways more reliable than today's hard/SSD drives.

Not sure if this will be helpful:

MD5 Checksum Verifier is files integrity checker based on the time proven MD5 algorithms.

With it you can easily create checksums of files and verify their integrity in the future. The operation is very easy, just two steps, make check file and verify check file.

http://www.tucows.co...ecksum-Verifier

Do I put each disc in and copy the contents to its own disc specific folder?

I would, to make sure that you copied all the discs.

Later, you can seperate the files into different folders, such as pictures, music, documents, etc.

[Growled Member]

If I really wanted to be sure about my backups, I would backup to external hard drives and to an online service.

[xendrome]

I'd use dropbox or carbonite to keep any data you want to keep from the DVDs and future backup. DVD media life isn't great after about 8-10 years, especially if the discs were written on with any type of non-water based marker

[roguekiller23231]

i created some backups back in 2004, all on dvd, the worst mistake i ever made, each disk takes about an hour to get the data off, some of the disks that claimed they would last '100 years' had become unreadable because the metal data area had curroded and blistered.

if i was you, create 1 folder, take everything off the disks and put them into that folder, then organizing everything that you have backed up (since you say you just backed up without thinking of organization) into separate folders.

the only discs that you should use for backups are archival type discs, which can be expensive if you need a lot of them, a HDD will be much better if stored correctly.

i keep 1 2TB drive for backups only, i don't compress or zip the files, dont create iso files, just organized the files into folders, this way if there is any data corruption only a few files will be effected rather than a whole iso/zip file of backups.

if you want to be sure that all the data off the discs has been transfered over use this

CD recovery toolbox

http://download.cnet.com/CD-Recovery-Toolbox-Free/3000-2352_4-10646814.html

you will have to select all the files you want to 'recover' and it will copy them all over, any that are bad/currupted/unreadable will try to recover and copy.

[Orange Battery]

Thanks for the info everyone. I have decided to use SyncBack Pro (mainly because I already own it). I am copying each desk into its own folder based upon the time that the original DVD was created, I am then running a MD5 checksum to confirm all data was copied across (Syncback has this ability but is so slow).

Once the process is complete, I will have data on my internal drives, backed up to two separate external drives.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Thanks for the info everyone. I have decided to use SyncBack Pro (mainly because I already own it). I am copying each desk into its own folder based upon the time that the original DVD was created, I am then running a MD5 checksum to confirm all data was copied across (Syncback has this ability but is so slow).

Once the process is complete, I will have data on my internal drives, backed up to two separate external drives.

Good Man. I love syncback pro. I backup small important files to DVD (and external drives) everything else gets put on internal / external drives. Just don't forget to also have off site external drive backups. Always plan for the worst. My personal rule of thumb is that if I buy a 1 or 2 TB data drive I buy 2 of them 1 for the data one for the backup. For Cheap external off site drives, I would recommend an e-sata dock. As it makes it cheap because you can buy regular internal drives, and fast because you can just stick one of those drives in the sata dock, back it up and pull it out.

if you really want to go overboard you can get a safety deposit box at the bank and every month rotate your backups. That's my preferred offsite backup method. As well as with carbonite, but I don't save all my large iso's to carbonite.

My personal rule is that the offsite backup is never at my house at the same time as my other external drive backup. Which is why once a month I backup to my second 3TB drive and take it to the bank to swap them out. I have 2 3TB drives

Offsite 1-1

Offsite 1-2

One stays at the bank and one stays at my house and every month they get swapped.

Also in my computer is another backup drive which backups up all my large stuff nightly.

I also have an external USB drive for my mom. Every Sunday I go to their house for breakfast. I take that drive and plug it into her computer run sync back then disconnect it and take it home with me. She also has an external nightly backup drive on her desk.

[JJ_]

Warwagon, I admire your effort. I've held off buying new larger drives but I'm going to have to take the plunge soon. I used to be a huge Seagate fanboy but ever since they moved production to China their drives have been getting terrible reviews. What make/model are your 3TB drives?

[+Warwagon MVC]

Warwagon, I admire your effort. I've held off buying new larger drives but I'm going to have to take the plunge soon. I used to be a huge Seagate fanboy but ever since they moved production to China their drives have been getting terrible reviews. What make/model are your 3TB drives?

WD Green.

I just really like the easy WD RMA procedure. I know that's planning on the drives dying, but if they do under warranty they make it a far less painful procedure as others.

[Orange Battery]

Good Man. I love syncback pro. I backup small important files to DVD (and external drives) everything else gets put on internal / external drives. Just don't forget to also have off site external drive backups. Always plan for the worst. My personal rule of thumb is that if I buy a 1 or 2 TB data drive I buy 2 of them 1 for the data one for the backup. For Cheap external off site drives, I would recommend an e-sata dock. As it makes it cheap because you can buy regular internal drives, and fast because you can just stick one of those drives in the sata dock, back it up and pull it out.

if you really want to go overboard you can get a safety deposit box at the bank and every month rotate your backups. That's my preferred offsite backup method. As well as with carbonite, but I don't save all my large iso's to carbonite.

My personal rule is that the offsite backup is never at my house at the same time as my other external drive backup. Which is why once a month I backup to my second 3TB drive and take it to the bank to swap them out. I have 2 3TB drives

Offsite 1-1

Offsite 1-2

One stays at the bank and one stays at my house and every month they get swapped.

Also in my computer is another backup drive which backups up all my large stuff nightly.

I also have an external USB drive for my mom. Every Sunday I go to their house for breakfast. I take that drive and plug it into her computer run sync back then disconnect it and take it home with me. She also has an external nightly backup drive on her desk.

Great stuff. I have been surprised by DVD. I started using Datawrite discs back in 2004 and every single one of them has been fine, Im now into 2007 and still not one problem.

Definitely gonna keep them, but not back so much up on them in future.

[JJ_]

WD Green.

I just really like the easy WD RMA procedure. I know that's planning on the drives dying, but if they do under warranty they make it a far less painful procedure as others.

Damn, the greens and Seagates latest offering have some bad reviews which is why I've been putting off getting a new drive for a while. Looks like I'll have to get 2 identical drives instead and mirror them in raid 1 instead of tempting faith.