A recent /. post prod me to do some research on CD-Rs for archival purposes. It looks like the MAM-A (and MAM-E in Europe) lines of CD-Rs, with the combination of Phtalocyanine dye and superior uniformity/quality make it ideal for archiving (and it looks like there aren’t many other players in the market anymore). Their top of the line Gold/Gold (650MiB) goes for $0.94/pop in quantities of 100 ($1.48/GiB), while the Silver/Gold (700MiB) can is $0.66 in quantities of 100 ($0.97/GiB).
Of course, doing large backups makes one wonder, why not DVD-Rs? And why not? A 50/pack of MAM-A DVD-Rs is $169.99 for 50, which comes out to $3.40/disc, or $0.78/GiB.
BTW, doing searching for the cost/GiB conversions has firmly convinced me that separate binary unit notation really is needed, otherwise evil marketing causes confusion.
- How Much Data Is On a CD/R? – nice table of sizes, CA-DA and CD-ROM data numbers
- DVD FAQ: DVD-R – interestingly enough, while CD-Rs are sold labeled in MiBs, DVD-Rs aren’t.
- MAM-A Technology: Technical Papers – some actually useful information here
- Mitsui Chemicals sells CD-R/DVD-R production – trivia bits; MAM stands for Mitsui Advanced Media
- cynikal’s Powerbook Superdrive Firmware Update – uncripples PB G4 Superdrives; 2X DVD-R, 16X CD-R, DVD-RW support
- Region free DVD hacks – UJ-815 has no region free firmware yet. see also: xvi’s page