Over a network.

Not WiFi though!

You could hook a single network cable between them. Give each machine an IP address, share the folder that you are copying to or copying from (your choice) and drag the files over. Or you could use RoboCopy to potentially do it faster.

Or just get a 2tb usb external drive and use that, it could be slower or perhaps faster than the network option depending on many factors but also more expensive as you have to buy the drive!

I’m the opposite. I find it particularly inconvenient not having discs to simply pop on a player.

I use a couple of streaming services but those really are just a video on demand channel.

I have a few mp3’s here and there, lol many on dvd-r but finding those when they are scattered about then writing to a spare flash drive just to stick in the player to watch is just a bit inconvenient.

Use a hdd? Well I could if I had the time to collect everything together and find a hdd and a caddy but I simply cba.

Basically the primary source for video and audio in my hoard is off optical media itself. And I’m adding more and more, so will be getting a couple of Billy shelves in the new year.

2 years is long term?

Wow now I feel old, at my age 2 years feels like what 6 months used to be lol.

Amazon Glacier Deep Archive

They’re the kind that are so clear you actually see the verbatim logo on the readable side

Those are the silver reflective layer ones. They use silver because of it’s better archival life vs aluminium, I have many pressed CD’s that also use silver and the rest is to see how much light shines through.

Very scratchy topside, which is basically ALL white besides a tiny verbatim and dvd-r logo on the middle, somehow feels heavier.

Printable disc. That’s a different item code for sure, not the same discs you used earlier. You say it had the same packaging? What logos were on it? Was the “AZO” logo on it?

You said the printable surface was “scratchy” well that’s not normal it’s supposed to be smooth.

I just keep the DVDs and Blu-ray as they are considering I use optical media for archives anyway!

But let’s say I have a dvd that needs backup because it’s extremely rare or, and this is actually more likely and what I actually do: I’m off on holiday at the end of the week and want to have Red Dwarf series 1 and I don’t fancy bringing the dvd itself along because I’m short on space when packing.

Well, rip the disc to an ISO file or as a mirrored directory structure. It’s only a maximum of 8GB for a single disc. I just rip a mirror of the disc using vobcopy.

Vobcopy will rip a title, or a chapter or will recreate the exact copy of the disc as a mirror, all the VOB files, IFO files etc. That way you have everything, all extras and all menus. It is a mirror of the disc, no re-encoding.

If having a 8GB iso is not what you are after and you need to re-encode, well that will need you to rip each disc specially, that means to learn how the extras are laid out, what audio tracks are what etc. You can rip it all to separate files, but you will lose things like menus and other presentation elements which is why I just mirror the whole disc.

As I keep all my discs and use them as intended I don’t need to worry about ripping extras if I don’t need to. In my example I mirrored Red Dwarf S1 but that was just so I could avoid taking the disc on holiday (I was already taking other discs and had no room) and I didn’t care to re-encode. I also simply deleted that rip when I was done with it as, well it’s still on dvd.

But I do have some rips of DVDs I no longer have. I may have upgraded to the Blu-ray and wanted to rip the main title for eas of use when on holiday etc, or I simply didn’t care enough to keep the dvd of something but I couldn’t just not have a copy of that thing I didn’t care much about. Thus I have ripped certain DVDs that I don’t intend to keep, only the main titles and no extras. I only rip what I can’t be bothered much about so I really can’t see the point in ripping the extras for something that is just above the “delete” key lol.

Encrypt the files before uploading and no service will be able to spy on you.

yt-dlp downloaded it fine.

I found that there are at least 3 types of HDD user.

• Those that only use WD because every Seagate they touch or see just seems to die.
• Those that use Seagate as they have WD’s dieing if they sneeze near them.
• Those that have realised Toshiba still exist.

I looked at one once and it died.

In fact I tend to kill Seagate’s a lot lol, I generally avoid the brand.

A head crash will not destroy data.

It will only damage the heads and damage the platters in a certain point but leave all data totally and easily recoverable.

If you want to wipe a drive quickly get a degausser or a shedder that shreds a drive down to less than 3mm bits.

This is what I do.

Burn them to bd-r. Create ECC files for the bd-rs using dvdisaster so I can repair the disc should anything bad happen. Backup the bd-r contents and ECC files to tape (or another bd-r or a HDD but I have tape from working in IT). Store the same in Amazon Glacier Deep Archive where I hope never to go to retrieve anything.

I have a large and growing DVD and Blu-ray collection.

That’s the stuff I have physically that could take “less space” if I were to rip them and put them onto a massive HDD NAS.

Why don’t I do that?

• Legally speaking if I were to rip anything I’d need to retain the original disc so…
• I archive to Optical Media as the ultimate storage format so I’d be burning the discs to Blu-ray after ripping them so… Why bother? They are already in their final format. I’m obsessed with light, I prefer optical media, I use cameras, I love binoculars and telescopes, I’ve worn glasses since I was 5, and I’m frequently reminded of my own colourblindness, light is something I’m obsessed with and yes I will never not archive to Optical no matter how many try to remind me if the cost of HDD lol
• I literally have no time. I see something on dvd or Blu-ray or an audio cd and spend less than a few mins buying it. That’s enough. I have 1,001 other things I need to do from fixing the car demister again to doing the hovering to finally going up into the attic to sort out the junk there, or do I sort out the junk in the spare room? Or what about the crap in the shed? I literally have more things to do and deciding not to rip digital media that is not rare (some are and should be backed up) is a welcome relief 😁

I also have many other collections that I maintain and need to add to or remove stuff from. Such as the camera collection, the watch collection, the books, the retro games, the retro computers, the Wedgewood pottery (yes I’m serious), the Lladro and Nao pottery figurines and other antiques that caught my eye.

I’m also a guy who has multiple hobbies since I turned 10 in 1990. I have skills in programming on retro systems I’m looking to re-awaken. I have been an avid photographer that shoots both film and digital to this day, and that hobby is screaming at me as my extensive 35mm and 120 film negatives I have made since the early 90’s are totally unprotected as they have not been scanned and indexed yet! That is exacerbated by the fact I’m still enjoying shooting new film and so adding to the pile.

Oh and that’s another example right there, of what I have physically that would take up “less space” digitally: my negatives. Well even when I finally scan them all I’m still keeping the negatives. The scanning is only to allow me to archive them digitally to Blu-ray and have another copy in Amazon Glacier in case the negatives all burn in the house. If they don’t burn in the house, like the dvd/Blu-ray/CD collection, they will out last me considering that silver halide film is one of the most stable storage methods there is.

So yeah why? Well no time. Just simply no time. The film is waaaaay more important to digitise rather than an out of print audio CD. So I’ll happily keep adding to the stack of CD’s 🤣

I always eject the device properly no matter what this setting is set to.

I’d say it’s best to keep it set for quick removal as that way you are protected against “accidents”.