Backing up music help

[The Bossman]

Okay, I mentioned I wanted to back up my music about 3 months ago, and I haven't done it yet, mainly because of work that's got in the way. I was going to do it today, but the DVD+RW discs I have aren't recognised in my PC. In the My Computer section it says the drive is a 'DVD/CD-RW Drive', so I presume that means the discs I have - DVD+RW - are null and void? I have about 13 GBs of music I want to back up, and need to know what CD or DVD to put it on, whether it's a CD-R, a DVD-R, a DVD-RW, a DVD+RW or whatever else, I have no idea... Basically, I want the correct storage CD/DVD(s) to put all 13GBs of my music onto, and it should be able to play back in a CD player, and be easy to put back onto an iPod.

The total length for all my music comes to 8:14:52:28, so 8 days, 14 hours, 52 minutes and 28 seconds.

I've marked out some things I had a quick browse for, so maybe you can tell me what the right one to get is? I've added up how many DVD-Rs I need - if that's the right choice - for the Amazon link, and if I want to get all my songs on them, I'd need around 64 CDs, which comes to around £30.21. That's if they're MP3 CDs, I'm not sure about Data CDs..

DVD-R, Amazon

DVD-RW, Verbatim

CD-R, Amazon

CD-RW, Verbatim

[Gerard]

DVD/CD-RW Drive means it is a DVD Reader and a CD Reader/Writer - this is called a Combo drive. You cannot burn DVDs with that drive.

Pretty much any DVD writer can write DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW etc - its not like it can be only DVD-Rs and not RWs.

If you're calculating by length of time, then you need to convert all your music to the same format (where lower quality uses less space) which will take ages.

If you just want to back up the files and not convert them, then you need to work on file size. A CD can hold a few hundred MB, a DVD can hold a few GB (depending on whether you go dual layer etc).

For 13gb, you'd need 20/30 CDs or 3 DVDs.

DVD writer costs you £20/30 (I just got a new SATA one). Worth the expense usually. But all my music is on a 250gb external hard drive, along with all my other backups.

[Heavenly_Blade]

if you want to play it on a cd player i'd burn it all on the 20 or 30 cd's

[The Bossman]

Gerard, a DVD writer like this?. If I get that, then I'll probably get a few of these as well. Question though, for that second link, is it 4.7GB for all 16 DVDs, or 4.7GB per DVD? If it's per DVD, then 3 DVDs would do, but if it's for all 16 DVDs, then I'd need to buy a few more sets of that, correct?

[Gerard]

One DVD holds 4.6 GB of data. You need around 3 of them.

That is the correct type of drive yes, but you can also get black ones and external USB ones. For the internal one (which you linked to) It doesn't say whether it is SATA or IDE, which you probably need to know to make sure it'll work with your PC. Get SATA if your PC is recent (year or so) or if you know your PC supports SATA, else get IDE if its older (2+ years). Or just get USB to be safe and it'll plug into any PC.

[The Bossman]

Definitely IDE, the computers 6 years old now I think. This DVD writer seems okay as well, it's an IDE so that's not a problem. When you say 'external USB', is that basically a 'plug in and use' device? Eg, you plug the USB lead into the USB and it'll work fine? If that's true, then I guess I'm sorted. I'll obviously have to consult with the parents before doing so.

[Spaz The Great]

Just a quick note for you, an MP3 cd is just a data cd that you put MP3s on. They aren't two different types of cds.

And yeah, external drives are ones that you don't need to get into the PC to use. Really handy things when you find((and you probably will)) uses for them. Usually more expensive, aren't they? But then again, buying an external drive also means you don't have to worry about what connection cable it uses, or replacing anything inside of your computer. So if you only have one space for a disk drive to go, buying an external would come in handy for things like copying disks and such.

[Righty]

I'd go with external hard drives for backup.

Actually, it's pretty nice to store data on external hard drives! Each time one of my servers or laptops dies I jsut have to plug the drives into another computer.

[WRX22B1998]

Yes I think an external hard disk (usb or firewire) will best suit this problem, since it would be a very long task to burn 20 or so data cd's...and if you were to use a dvd burner, you were gona have to buy one anyways...External hard drives obviously can be written to and read from an unlimited amount of times..but you wont be able to play on a cd player...although it will work on any computer with a USB drive...most will support USB2/USB1.1 and sometimes firewire (if you have), but i would recommend buying an external hdd only if your computer has USB2 (which it should), otherwise it will be hours upon hours to transfer all that music

So...get an external hard drive - the ones that are advertised as portable dont need to be plugged into a powerpoint (wall socket) just use USB, but 'external' need to be plugged into a power point, and usualy are cheaper than portables..

[Righty]

The only portable ones I have seen are 2.5'' drives. And they are more expensive.

[Spaz The Great]

You can buy external housing for regular internal hard drives. I have one, but I only have an 80GB in it right now.