this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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What are some things that can be done with blank dvds, nowadays? (lemm.ee)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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So my family has a few containers of unused blank dvds that are just lying around collecting dust. i know dvds are almost useless because of streaming, but can they still be used. Theses dvds can only be written to once and they only have like 3 gb of storage on them, can they still be used?, do they have a use?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

You will need to double check the specific DVDs you are working with. They can be useful for backups and if you don't store them in sunlight or acid or something they basically last forever. You can copy your important data onto a DVD and leave it in your closet for the rest of your life. Of course, as with all backup strategies, you need to test it very regularly.

Edited to add nitpicks: if you decide to do this back up across multiple DVDs and use encryption. Borg is a fantastic tool for encrypted backups and if you are just mounting your DVDs as cdrom0 and such it can handle that as easily as any other block device.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

You can copy your important data onto a DVD and leave it in your closet for the rest of your life.

Not really. After a few years you'll get bitflips, after about ten the organic material will have decomposed to the point you can't trust the backup anymore. It's probably easier to use old HDDs for that which you periodically checksum.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hmm my experience with DVD storage is mostly negative. They were all put in cases in closed shelves but after ~10 years there were either unreadable or with errors. I know there are DVD-Rs that are specifically rated for archival but most are not.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Here are the most common mistakes people used to make when writing DVDs:

  1. Not buying a decent brand (low quality blanks).
  2. Writing the blanks at high speeds (highest that their optical drive could do). The depth and definition of the burned tracks was better the slower you went. It was commonly recommended to not go over 4x speed.
  3. Storing the written DVDs in their original spindles. This means that the discs would rest on each other and the ones on the bottom would be pressed down by all of those above. Over 10 years this would negatively affect the tracks. Ideally the discs should be stored in disc binders, in vertical position.

By following these precautions I still have 20-year old backup DVDs that I can read without a problem. In fact most of my CD blanks have survived and are readable โ€“ and the ones that didn't owe it mostly to scratches (CDs were a lot more delicate than DVDs and nowhere near Blu Ray durability).

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Check them regularly and mirror them. They are basically only beaten by tape drives in terms of longevity. Do not under any circumstance use 1 copy of a DVD for backups. Consider this to be a RAID system. They stand the test of time but not the test of being in a moving box or under a hammer.