HELP DESK
I recently saw an article in Photoshop User, Dec 2007, that said "I believe that images should be stored on CDs and DVDs and never on hard drives." I would like Database's opinion on this. Personally, as a professional photographer, up until a year or two ago, I was backing-up all my images to CD or DVD. However, as the prices of hard drives have fallen dramatically recently, I have been buying external USB drives to back up my images and all my data. Starting at 200GB, then 250GB, 320GB and I just recently splurged on a WD 1TB drive for my new iMac. I would appreciate an expert Database opinion as to which system they think is best, including such variables as longevity, durability and the possibility of new formats or storage options in the future such as online storage, etc. Such an article would be most useful.
GEORGE BLOUNT
Database replies: Wanda Sloan replies: In my opinion, that is one of the strangest and certainly one of the most outlandish statements in recent memory.
Most experts agree that it is not possible to truly try to provide a failure-time for CDs, DVDs and hard drives. But optical media in general are considered to have a shorter life than hard drives.
In addition to the wonderful prices these days, factor in the cost of burning and then retrieving pictures, the agony of cataloguing some, then several dozen and then probably hundreds of CDs or DVDs as opposed to indexing one hard drive, and there is little contest. Retrieving a specific photo from your DVD collection is an adventure; retrieving it from a large hard drive is a couple of minutes of scanning the index and some brief copying time.
Then there is the uncertainty. The only way to know when a CD or DVD fails is when you try it out, meaning when you want the photos. When a hard drive goes down, you know immediately. You can replace it, and replace your data from the backup hard drive (preferably, for safety, kept in a separate place).
In my estimation, there is not a single reason to use CDs and/or DVDs to store images and their backups. Just for fun I am going to forward this to our Helpdesk geeks and see if they can think of any reason to use CDs over a hard drive. I bet they can't, but let's see.
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Finding old drivers
I read Database whenever I can, and I have gained lots of knowledge that has helped me over the past 10 years. Now I am writing to you for the first time for help and hope I you can help me with my problem and I hope it isn't a repetition of a previous question.
A friend of mine has a Gericom Hummer 2840e DVD/CD-RW notebook computer with an Intel Celeron 2, a 30GB hard disk and 256MB RAM given to him by a German friend. Since we don't understand German I re-formatted the computer and installed Windows XP Service Pack 2. I did not back up any of the installed drivers, and now I am getting problems with the DVD/CD-RW drive and the modem. Everything else is okay. Although I can play some songs on the drive, it is very selective in the CDs it plays. For the modem I have not found any driver yet.
On top of that there seems to be some kind of virus or worm or Trojan, since I can't access the drive C: by double-clicking and when I try to format it, it says that I can't because something is open. When I try to setup Windows XP a blue screen comes up and says that I need to remove some software that I installed recently to run Windows smoothly. But when I restart the computer everything is okay again until I try to setup a new Windows, and the same screen comes up again.
I think that it is not normal to not be able to format or setup a new Windows because there might be a virus, worm or something.
I have no recovery disk and no installation CD nor drivers. Please advise me on how to format and/or setup a new Windows installation and how to get the drivers, or even how to remove the virus.
I bought a CD of drivers from Pantip Plaza (called "Alcohol", some 25,000 drivers) but I don't really know whether they are for Gericom and they don't seem to work. I really need your help as I have been struggling with this for more than a year. By the way the DVD/CD-RW is labelled in the computer as "TSST" something.
WORRIED FOR FRIENDS
Database replies: Wanda Sloan replies: Well, I don't know how much I can help. But there are things you can do to help yourself.
First, you should go to the web site of your modem vendor and look for a driver for your modem. Gericom has a professional web site at http://www.gericom.com, and it works very well in English too (http://www.gericom.com/home.html?L=1). If you type "gericom" or "gericom drivers download" at Google, you can get lots of help there. I don't know exactly how much help you can get, though, because let's face it, your laptop is rather outdated.
By your description, you definitely have a virus or malware infection. You can try the usual software (Adaware, for example) and that might clean up the problem.
To be frank, I think you should take the machine to the fifth floor of Pantip Plaza and see if one of the young wizards in the warren of backroom corridors can reformat the machine, reinstall Windows and get the correct drivers working.
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