External DVD fail

[Tengu]

Having dabbled in Archival practice I like solid media...but my current laptop has no disc drive.

I have TWO externals, neither work.

one refuses to acknowlege there is a disc in it and the other says corrupted disc.

what do I do?

 

[Broch]

Solid state drives on USB are now considered more reliable than optical disk - but you should keep a master and a backup. If you already have stuff on DVD I would get it off and onto SSD as soon as possible - finding a friend with a working drive is probably the easiest.

 

[Kadushu]

SSDs need powering up occasionally to retain their memory, so if you're thinking of very long term storage such as leaving it in the loft for decades then they may not be ideal.

 

[Broch]

Good point, I was assuming we were talking about regularly used backup media as opposed to save and forget archive. I guess for write once then forget, optical must still be considered though the data density is not ideal. Professionally I think it's still LTO magnetic tape (10-30 years) but for amateur use HDD (5-10 years). Then there's the old rule, 2 copies on site, one copy off site. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about this anymore

 

[Tengu]

So you mean to say my DVD (and Blu-ray) collection is useless?

 

[Broch]

Nope, I have optical discs that are over 30 years old still working. You just need to get a drive that you know is functioning and try each one. Very often it's just a dirty disc and a good (gentle) clean will solve it.

How many discs have you tried in your two drives?

 

[Tengu]

Ill give it a go

 

[Tengu]

Ah.

Ive been putting in Blu-rays.

I assume the machines I have are DVD only.

(does play DVDs...if in the mood).