The global optical disc industry is experiencing a reshuffle which will continue into the first half of 2013 due to makers in Japan as Digitimes reports, as well as second- and third-tier Taiwan-based... Optical disc prices to rise nearly 50%
Read news - freaks out - remembers it's not the 90's - thinks of smart arse comment to post - moves on with forum prowling. Wouldn't be a shame if hard drive prices went up thou....oh.
I used to use them for backups and storage, but now they're inconvenient to me for that purpose. Much more convenient to use hard drives now, and HD prices are falling back to reasonable levels, esp external storage. A 2tb WD is around $120, and if optical disk prices double, HD storage may for the first time cost as much or even be cheaper if the downward price trend continues.
Guess i'll just stock up now. 3-4 big spindles of CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and Dual layer disk and i'll be set. I use soo few disc, that much, should last me to the point i entirely cease using optical disc. Which i still use, rarely though.
I have a pile of CDs and DVDs - just needed them for new computer initial backups and for some rescue/repair software. Think the oldest empty ones are 8 years old.
Only my most important data goes on optical disc.....and I only buy optical discs once every couple years.
you have to remember that nothing beats optical discs when it comes to back up. hard drives can fail. I have all my treasured family photos and what not backed up on DVD discs. To make it extra safe I have a backup of the backup stored at my work place. optical discs still serve well for this purpose.
Of course it can be scratched. But please read my point. If it was something important like family photos and such, what would you really have it backed on. Think about it before you answer ...
bah, external usb drives ftw.! they saved my life, smooth movies playback..!! in the army and general intelligence agencies their data except servers, are backup'ed on hdds and then locked up, in fireproof places, multiple instances different places for avoiding physical disasters...i never heard about optical disks for many years though...so, nobody cares, even car audio uses usb tbh
Internal hard drive copy, external hdd backup, USB flash drives, iCloud and Skydrive .. lol @ optical discs.
Ordered 200 Verbatim DVD+R's earlier today, and that'll probably keep me going for the next five years or so!
optical disks fail all the time, due to dye issues and other things, the most reliable backup method is tape backups, they arent cheap anymore, but theres a reason many data centers still use tape for backups to this day.
