OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

Hey all I may need to wipe my hard drive in the near future but I have a LOT of stuff on it that is to near and dear to my heart to watch get wiped away with it and I need to get some CD:RWs but I need to know what kind to get for .zip files, which is what all the important things on my computer are currently saved as.

As I said .zip files, I need to know what kind of CD:RW to get because to my suprise there was more then one type lol.

Re: OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

Fear the CD-RW! Unreliable beasts. If at all possible try and borrow a drive off a mate and copy them there. Or use CD-Rs, but so many mates have so many problems with CD-RWs that I wouldn't trust anything important to them.

Just my 2p(or 4cents) worth.

Re: OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

Always check your CD after writing to see that it actually got writ.

Re: OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

Oh I plan to ensure that everything is saved trust me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif but I have friends that constantly put things on CD-RWs including picutres, uh though I do know some folks who no matter what CD-RW they got it was "blank" turns out they just didn't have the proper software to begin with....though it took them long enough to realize it lol.

Re: OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

It's not just problems copying, its the fact they are much more prone to suddenly stopping working or developing errors for no real reason. A CD-RW may work perfectly, you check it, do your wiping and then come back to it and its developed errors whilst sitting in its case.

Their fairly flaky and the problems are inherent in the technology. I'll take something I trust over the re-use. Besides I've still got a big stack of unused CD-Rs as I rarely use them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

CD-R's are cheap, so just use them.

Re: OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

Get some TY's They are the best on the market for realiable back ups. Do not go to BB and buy the cheapest Mitsumi ones.

TY or the japanesse Maxells are very good. I order from a company called www.blankmedia.ca I am sure there is one like that in your country that you can order from or a mom and pop store that carries those brands in your area.

TY = TAIYO YUDEN RITEK is also good.

Re: OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

Ok one thing is that it doesn't matter what you are putting on the disk. All the stuff is the same to the computer (just ones and zeros), so it doesn't matter if it's a picture, a piece of music, a text file, or movie or anything like that.

So that helps a little about things to think about when getting the disks.

Re: OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

Gotcha just plane CD-Rs thanks for the help you guys!

Re: OT: Advice about CD RWs
 

You can use fewer CDs by using a competent compression algorithm such as RAR, BZ, 7zip, etc. Plain old ZIP is very wasteful.