par2, should i use?
Reply #21 – 2008-04-15 02:55:37
could you recommend if i should use par2 (if this is the newest, best recovery thing) to add security to my rips? No, imho, however, my take on this is quite different than the advice I've found around here, so this may be a bit heretical. Now, to explain, let me start with two things that I've come to accept. One, manufactured CD's and DVDs do not degrade in the same way or at the same rate as burned media; in fact, as far as I know, they don't really 'degrade' at all. The only reason that my pressed media has become unuseable has been due to use, ie. scratches, in the info, or lower, side of the disc, which can sometimes be removed, however, the underlying pits and lands are metal protected by plastic and so they should last a very long time. Two, burnable media is not the same as pressed media, and the process of burning a disc simply does not produce an indefinitely stable, long term product. From what I understand, CDR and DVDR media can fail in as little as a few months, or may be readable for as long as they have been around, which is decades by now. Sure, they might last, but to me, might is simply not good enough. Therefore, my backup strategy is to preserve the condition of my originals. I do this by not using them. So, each and every time that I buy a CD or DVD, I copy it, and then, I only use the copy, thereby saving the original as a perfect master. As far as backing up CDRs or DVDRs, I agree with the aforementioned HDD solution. I also have FLAC files archived on a RAID. My advice, just forget about backing up anything to CDR or DVDR for the long term.PS. I do use .par files, on my archived files, just in case my RAID should fail, in which case data recovery may be required.