[MacDV] external hard drives

[Rich]

On 3-2-2006 23:31, Patty Winter wrote:
> A question related to the original one:
>
> I'm thinking of digitizing some old VHS tapes and storing the
> full-resolution QuickTime files on several hard drives. I'll
> make DVDs from them, but I'm not sure about the lifetime of
> consumer-grade DVDs, so figured I should hold onto the original
> files. If I do that, should I hook up the drives a couple times
> a year and let them run for a few days to give them some exercise?
> Or doesn't it matter?
>   
 From personal experience I see no difference in a hard disks behaviour 
after sitting undisturbed for two years when compared to the ones that I 
turn on a couple of times a week. Given the uncertainty in the 
reliability of CDs and DVDs what I'd do is write the files to the drives 
and then every two years burn new DVDs and throw the old ones away. As 
disc technology changes you can then just migrate the disc files to new 
drives. If you're willing to use more time you can skip the  drive-based 
storage and just read the DVDs in at the time you need to write new ones.

Rich