Where are the 128gb BD-R's anyway?

I am not looking for comments about USB flash drives, SSD's and HD's being cheaper. I already backup files to a 10 bay QNAP nas.

I am looking for a non-magnetic media secondary backup and the logical option is 128gb BD-R's. Since about 2006 Pioneer has been selling internal SATA drives like the BDR-2209 which will burn 128gb BD-R's.

So where are the (insert insult here) 128gb BD-R's? (Even Digistor only carries up to 3 layer 100gb discs'.)

 

There is no doubt you have a use for 28GB (nominal) higher capacity discs.

My concern is with the optical discs themselves in general. Almost anything optical that was not pressed (at the factory) has failed in the end. Optical backups burned on consumer level drives are worthless in my experience.

A second 10 bay QNAP is highly recommended over BD-R's.

Good luck.

 

Indeed, any burned optical is unreliable crap.

 

I have used cheap optical media and had issues, but using quality optical media, I have pulled discs I burned 15 years ago with out an issue and pulled files off them, so I am not sure where the issue is, and blu ray optical media has better coatings and a longer life span than CD's and DVD's.

 

I managed to pull stuff out of cheap CD's I burned after over a decade sitting on them with scratches... such as very old games.
However, many of those discs, even with relative care suffer from scratches and other irreparable damage which ended up with unrecoverable files (so I had to resort to other means to get the needed data).

I hadn't actually used optical media in about a decade (since I migrated everything to an external HDD), unless it was for a person who did use it and needed something burned because they were accustomed to that particular method as opposed to storing data on USB flash-drives or external HDD's.

Personally, I find storing files on external HDD or potential USB flash drive far more efficient and faster - especially if I migrate files from one location to the next

There's another potential issue with optical discs... burning data on them can be a tricky process... one mishap and you have just wasted the optical drive, or something went wrong during the burning itself.
I found more issues with DVD's over the past 7 years producing these problems, so it's probably down to the quality of the burner itself and other factors.

I'm not saying that HDD backup is fool-proof (far from that), however it does appear more reliable when it comes to storing large quantities of data in a smaller space and of course ensuring the file transfer will likely occur with least amount of issues.

 

More then one problem is occurring here besides the media itself.

I still use optical media and have no problem using them as backups especially movies. Played them and they worked fine and they were Memorex media.

This works for short term where you need to have ready access to them but long term would consider DVD/BD media as secure long term storage-but the elephand in the room is-that you use the same media to read as what was use to burn to the media otherwise if the new software doesn't read the same format makes both worthless.

I found no issues with DVD and recent BD that I burned movies to and that is a test of how good the media and software was that created it. So it's not just media quality but Media, Software, Hardware should one of those fail then the end results are Coasters.

HDD/USB memory are good for short term storage and usage but for long term one should consider Optical Media but also the software that writes to it and future software to be able to read/retrieve the data back. As for movie DVD/BD it depends on the Media and Hardware and Software if properly configured.

 

The 128*GB discs are yet to come out. I've found backing up and archiving family videos and pictures to be well suited to Blurays. I can make multiple backups and simply shelve them. HDD's are way too volatile and fragile in my experience.

 

Even the 100GB media is just too expensive.

 

It sure is. I've found them for around 1600 yen (us$16-20) at their cheapest and they're not always at that price. It's a big waste of money if a burn fails. I'm mainly using 25gb discs which are as cheap as blank cd/DVD 's. Hopefully 100gb discs will come down in price in the not so distant future.

 

Obviously you can use what you want but for backing up important data I would never trust optical. Sure for mass media storage and such it's fine or even as a secondary archival backup. But optical media are way too sensitive to too many factors to be reliable. Not to mention speed and cost and convenience. Considering you can buy a decent 4TB 2-bay NAS for $300-$350 you can't beat the cost and convenience and reliability of it over any optical media.

If you are to use optical, best to go with M-Disc. It's supposed to be the ultimate archival media, but quality discs cost about $5-6 each for 25GB and 100GB ones can be found for about $20 each.

 

Since these are burn once and forget I would have to see them, 100gb, in the $2 range to make them viable. A HDD just has too many advantages over this media.