Is Blu-ray a good long-term backup medium for photo archives?
Asked 6/17/2011
2 views
2 answers
0
I want to archive photos for the long term and am considering Blu-ray discs. Are Blu-ray discs a good option compared with hard drives for long-term photo storage? Are there reasons photographers or labs might avoid Blu-ray? How does Blu-ray compare with DVD for archival use and access speed?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
20
The simple fact of the matter is that we don't know how good writable Blu-Ray discs are yet -- there isn't sufficient data to say whether or not they'll stand the test of time. Accelerated aging tests can only get you so far. They certainly make a degree of practical sense in terms of cost, shipping, and so forth, but as a long-term solution, right now, you would have to be willing to engage in a rigorous program of periodic disc duplication in order to stave off any potential "bit rot". At least until the medium is proven, or its archival qualities are properly understood. (And I's stick to single-layer, since clouding -- obstructing the deeper layer -- is one of the more probable failure modes.)
Of course, the same can be said for any digital storage medium. Magnetic domains aren't forever either, so periodic rewriting is essential. Then there's always the question of long-term readability -- there was a time when ZIP disks and magneto-optical storage sounded like a good idea, but now we have the problem of sourcing readers for those disks. How long will it be before it becomes the next best thing to impossible to find an interface for an EIDE/PATA hard drive? SCSI? When will SATA be superceded? Or USB? Even file formats change over time, so there's no real guarantee than twenty years down the road your files will still be readable (this will be less of a problem for well-entrenched formats like JPEG or TIFF than with any proprietary format, but you never know).
The advantage to magnetic storage is that the storage capacity of individual drives is much larger than optical disks, so when you need to re-archive (and you will need to) there's a lot less donkey work involved in the process. I'd much rather swap 1TB hard drives than 25GB optical discs any day.
Originally by user2719. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2719
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Blu-ray can be a reasonable backup medium, but it should not be your only long-term archive.
The main issue is uncertainty: writable Blu-ray discs have not been proven over enough real-world time to guarantee very long archival life. Claims of decades of shelf life exist, but practical long-term reliability is still uncertain. That makes regular verification and periodic reburning important.
Compared with hard drives, Blu-ray has some advantages: discs are inexpensive in small increments, easy to store off-site, and less vulnerable to some hard-drive failure modes. The hard coating also helps resist scratches. But optical media is less convenient for everyday access, and any single disc can fail, become unreadable in some drives, or be physically damaged.
Best practice: make multiple copies, test each burned disc on more than one reader, store copies in different locations, and re-check them every few years. If using Blu-ray, single-layer discs may be preferable to reduce possible multi-layer readability issues.
Blu-ray is generally better than DVD for this purpose because it offers higher capacity and is newer media, but the same archival cautions apply to DVDs too. Access is still optical-disc access, so it is less convenient than a hard drive for browsing a large photo library.
In short: Blu-ray is fine as one layer of backup, not as the only copy.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI15y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
How should photographers store and back up a large photo library today?
What scan resolution and file format should I use to archive printed photos?
What settings and workflow are best for scanning 10×15 cm printed photos for backup?
Can backup compression take advantage of similarities between photos?
What’s a simple, safe way to store and back up 400GB+ of family photos when moving to a new computer?