Backing up purchases on cd.
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Thread: Backing up purchases on cd.

  1. #1

    Backing up purchases on cd.

    Hi all,I am thinking of backing up all my purchases such as the VRS F-18 Hornet,Simworks studios Phantom,ect,ect what would be the best way to do this when using a CD? because,I have read that there are a few ways to do this properly including making an ISO file,but,I need some advice for sure.Thanks

  2. #2
    SOH-CM-2024 WarHorse47's Avatar
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    I do this continually.

    My download purchases and freeware downloads are saved to folders such as FSX Aircraft, FSX Scenery, etc. Each product in zip or exe format is saved to sub folders by name such as 'JF Lancaster'.

    I monitor the accumulated size until I've reached around 3.5 Gb. I can then select the individual folders, right click and send to my CD drive. The CD's I use have a 4.3 GB capacity. I don't use any special software but the burn features that came with Win 8.1. The OS has a two step process where by the files are first copied into memory, then I'm prompted to "burn to disc."

    As part of my process, I actually create two copies or in other words I burn the files and folders to two disc. The redundancy gives a little more security should one disc go bad. When done each disc is labeled (with a permanent marking pen) simply as 'Downloads", Disk number (sequential) and the date created. Before I remove the original downloads from my HD, I always check to make sure the disc(s) were properly burned.

    The advantage of adding the date created is that I can always reference my receipt to the date burned should I have to retrieve the download.

    One more pointer. If my purchase requires a registration or serial number, I copy it to a text file and include it in the associated folder should I need to reinstall.

    Hope that gives you some ideas.
    -- WH

    If at first you don't succeed, try, try,try again. ... or go read the manual.

  3. #3
    CD? Seriously ?

    Just teasing you. I just leave install files in a folder tree in my downloads directory and it gets backed up when I do a regular system back up. I also copy them to s second hard drive on my system. ... then there's the cloud (but I've never trusted cloud based archiving)
    Your English is better than my French, German, Italian, Spanish.... so no worries my friends!


  4. #4

    All of my purchases

    I have numerous (lots) of flash drives for saving all my payware downloads on as well as desireable freeware because even the freeware tends sometimes to disappear never more to return like Ozx which crashed through no fault of theirs. Also have run across even here where places like Mediafire or Dropbox accounts are discontinued and those links are gone too.

    Better safe than sorry. I then make a directory of what is on each flash drive and also the license or registration for each payware. Its a good idea for the payware to list what online etailer it was purchased from because they keep downloads in your account to recover it.

  5. #5
    Thanks great advice all,WarHorse47 how do you check if a cd is burned properly?

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by PhantomP View Post
    Thanks great advice all,WarHorse47 how do you check if a cd is burned properly?
    You chuck it back into the computer and see if the files can be read/accessed.

    Better still, invest in an external SSD. It is likely to far outlive the media that 'was' CD/DVD.
    Burnable discs can 'delaminate' rendering them as useless as frisbies...

  7. #7
    Senior Administrator huub vink's Avatar
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    In the past I used CDs to make backups. A few years ago I found out there were several files which were damaged beyond repair. Since than I use an external SSD to make my back-ups. Which is much easier, because instead of going through multiple CDs to find a file, you can now browse and search the whole drive in one go.

    Cheers,
    Huub

  8. #8
    I am using external HDD (1TB). There is enough capacity and speed for my payware for a very reasonable price. Freeware stays in Internet (though I have backed up some of my favourites).

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by WarHorse47 View Post
    The CD's I use have a 4.3 GB capacity.......... When done each disc is labeled (with a permanent marking pen)
    Be careful that you use a special Disc marker pen because some pens can destroy the reflective layer on the disc (it's happened to me!). By the way, CDs don't have nearly this capacity - you must be using DVDs

    Quote Originally Posted by tgycgijoes View Post
    I have numerous (lots) of flash drives for saving all my payware downloads on
    Flash drives are not completely permanent. Nor are SSDs, nor are Hard discs or optical discs, even the archival quality ones. If you look at current thinking, NO media is 100% permanent. Advice seems to be to make more than one copy on more than one medium and make sure that the media is still playable on current technology. Transfer your files every few years onto different/up-to-date media. Backing up to the Cloud is a solution but even that has its well-publicised drawbacks.
    Windows 8.1 64 bit
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  10. #10
    Senior Administrator Willy's Avatar
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    I copy my payware to an external HD for backup. Usually after I've unlocked them in case I lose my install key.
    Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right.

  11. #11
    SOH-CM-2024 WarHorse47's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thefrog View Post
    By the way, CDs don't have nearly this capacity - you must be using DVDs.
    Yep. You're right. Memorex DVD-R's with 4.7 Gb capacity.

    I'm nearing 200 storage discs. Half of that are CD-R discs with 700 Mb capacity, with the remaining at 4.7 Gb capacity. The only time I encountered a problem was early on when I attempted to burn files that exceeded the disc capacity.

    Sometimes I wonder if its really worth the effort. Most developers and distributors retain your download (and updates) at no charge. Most freeware can be found with a simple internet search, but there are some exceptions.
    -- WH

    If at first you don't succeed, try, try,try again. ... or go read the manual.

  12. #12
    Yeah,I have an SSD for backup,and yes the DVDs,I am using are 4.7 compacity.Thanks again for all the advice.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by thefrog View Post

    Flash drives are not completely permanent. Nor are SSDs, nor are Hard discs or optical discs, even the archival quality ones. If you look at current thinking, NO media is 100% permanent.
    Correct, but by far the [current] best is an SSD, and by far the worst is whatever is outside your actual control...the cloud.
    Second worst is optical disc burning.
    Reality is...burners are a dying technology...fewer and fewer new computers even have them.
    Oh, forgot....the actual worst of the worst is cellulose film...

  14. #14
    I have a Blue Ray burner, nice capacity, but as Jafo points out, they are becoming a thing of the past. Windows 10 won't even recognise the drive anymore since an update a year or so ago. Nothing I have tried has made the drive visible, it works fine in Bios, so i'm stumped. I just keep my stuff on an HDD now.

    If you have any CD's burned that are 3 or more years old, you should consider checking they are still okay and transferring them to new media, DVD and Blue-ray discs tend to last longer than the older CD's 5ish years, but not by too much.

  15. #15
    Been said a few times already but an external SSD is definitely the way to go, you can pick up fairly high capacity models for pretty reasonable prices now.
    "Thou shalt maintain thine airspeed lest the ground shalt rise up and smite thee"

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Desert Rat View Post
    I have a Blue Ray burner, nice capacity, but as Jafo points out, they are becoming a thing of the past. Windows 10 won't even recognise the drive anymore since an update a year or so ago.
    Chances are it's still that old issue from pre win7 days ....you really need to force the appropriate driver as 10 is too stupid to be competent as an OS.
    The latest update was just re-released after being pulled for deleting a user's data ...and it's now back with 'new and improved bugs' instead.

    Horrifyingly, 'Google is your friend', and others will be guaranteed to have suffered your same issue...and likely there's a posted fix.... but always remember....searching is 'GIGO'...

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by thefrog View Post
    ...
    Flash drives are not completely permanent. Nor are SSDs, nor are Hard discs or optical discs, even the archival quality ones. If you look at current thinking, NO media is 100% permanent. Advice seems to be to make more than one copy on more than one medium and make sure that the media is still playable on current technology.
    ...
    You are right. That's why I have the important files in two places on my internal HDD (second drive 1TB - first is SSD) and on that external I mentioned.

    The media doesn't have to last for ever because FSX (or what ever) doesn't. The essential part of the story is that it is very unreal that two disks brake at the same time.

  18. #18
    The cloud is the best way to go if you have a fast internet connection.
    I have saved several files and pictures on my OneDrive (from Microsoft) and it never ever lost anything in the last ten years or more.
    My internet connection is so slow I can't use it to store large archives, though... it would take forever to upload
    But I have definitely stopped using CDs or infamous DVDs. These are too slow and unreliable.
    I even removed the DVD player from my computer.

    As mentioned earlier in this topic by other member, additional external HDDs or SSDs, or flashdrives or whatever, are not lasting forever, and might crash earlier than you thought, or might get damaged by shocks/fire/water/cat/kid etc...
    .

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Daube View Post
    The cloud is the best way to go if you have a fast internet connection.
    I have saved several files and pictures on my OneDrive (from Microsoft) and it never ever lost anything in the last ten years or more.
    .
    I would strongly advise NOT to rely solely on 'the cloud' or in fact any alternate location which is not under your own full control.
    There is nothing to prevent Microsoft or any other provider from withdrawing the service without warning....or shutting it down without notice....going bust....or, as is the current expertise evidenced by the latest Win 10 updates....simply deleting a User's files with the one apology...."Oops".
    It is akin to making a careful backup on an SSD but then handing it to the first stranger you see in the street and saying 'look after this for me'.
    You wouldn't....and likewise you shouldn't.

    Best practice may see 'the cloud' as yet one more option...but NEVER a sole option. Ever.

    What I do....
    I have 6 physical hard drives totaling 8 partitions. 2 partitions are my M.2 drive, half is the OS and half is FSX [mostly].
    Each day the OS part is imaged to a second physical drive. Each week the FSX part is imaged to a third physical drive, and each week the OS image is copied to a fourth.
    Each day individual folders [work, fsx aircraft/paints, etc] are incrementally backed to a separate physical, and each week those backups are backed up to yet another drive.
    That backup proggy [Syncback] is also used [when I remember....feel the urge] to backup those folders to a [normally] unconnected SSD that resides in a fire safe.
    The phrase 'redundancy backup' is the best-case methodology for not ending up crying into your beer when everything goes missing/wrong.
    Of course, there are paints of mine on SOH....which means they can be available 'in the cloud', but I've been a member of several sites who have suffered server crashes and lost their databases.... it happens...

  20. #20
    Oh come on Jafo. Cloud services are the future. M$ is heavily investing in it, and more than likely, local storage will become a thing of the past.

    if you're really distrustful, by all means, backup locally, but the advantages offered by cloud storage are plenty.

    M$ will not stop or withdraw the service anytime soon and definitely not without warning.

    I always wonder why some people over here are so distrustful of progress... Oh wait, they're still flying FSX...

    Priller

  21. #21
    MS will not withdraw the cloud services anytime soon, especially given all modern industries are investing in that area at the moment.
    In the recent past, MS did change something though: it reduced the available storage space for free hotmail/outlook users.
    However, this wasn't "without notice". In fact, MS warned us many months in advance.

    Onedrive, formerly known as Skydrive, exists since a very long time and works very well.
    I have lost quite a few files I saved on CDs, DVDs or hardrives. I have not lost a single file on the cloud. Yet.

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Jafo View Post
    Chances are it's still that old issue from pre win7 days ....you really need to force the appropriate driver as 10 is too stupid to be competent as an OS.
    The latest update was just re-released after being pulled for deleting a user's data ...and it's now back with 'new and improved bugs' instead.

    Horrifyingly, 'Google is your friend', and others will be guaranteed to have suffered your same issue...and likely there's a posted fix.... but always remember....searching is 'GIGO'...
    Jafo,

    been there, done that. Any and all fixes have either not worked at all or only worked until W10 decides to forget about my drive at the next reboot, sometimes not even that long, even had it happen in the middle of using it.


  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Desert Rat View Post
    Jafo,

    been there, done that. Any and all fixes have either not worked at all or only worked until W10 decides to forget about my drive at the next reboot, sometimes not even that long, even had it happen in the middle of using it.

    Yes, it's a well documented issue with Win 10, but, just as it suddenly failed it "may" yet suddenly reappear.....purely dependent on the vagaries of the Microsoft FORCED-BETA process that is Win 10.
    Considering how they cleverly managed to wipe people's User files [you know, like Word Documents, etc. - actual WORK stuff] who here can say a Win 10 'update' won't wipe either record or access or both of a User's cloud storage?
    I know I bloody-well can't, hence my utter distrust of the Post-Gates Microsoft....

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Daube View Post
    I have lost quite a few files I saved on CDs, DVDs or hardrives. I have not lost a single file on the cloud. Yet.
    Nearly a quarter of a century ago I was around at the beginning of Windows 'skinning', [the graphic modification of the Windows GUI and/or Shell alternatives to Explorer.exe], and needless to say was an active member of ALL the online Skinning Sites, big and small, uploading my works to all of them at one time or another. That effectively constitutes 'the cloud', perhaps even MORE indelible than one specific site as there were more than a dozen skinning sites.
    There are effectively only two left...Deviantart.com and Wincustomize.com.
    The bigger ones gone include...
    LS.net
    Litestep.com
    Deskmod.com - had a server crash during its life...so gone twice
    Skinz.org - the dot-com crash killed that one.

    and the very first one...Customize.org - also had a server crash fairly early on...and was subsequently 'dead' for about 2 years.

    Now, Deviantart.com redirected its focus to general graphic art to the detriment of an actual GUI skinning community so really it's only Wincustomize [for which I'm an Admin] that can be shown to have kept skins/graphics in a 'cloud'.... but that too has had DB issues over the years - 17 years is a long time.

    Now, I haven't really lost anything from all the site/cloud failures....because [wait for it] I rely on DB backups under my own physical control....

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