document updated 15 years ago, on Jul 24, 2008
As of 2008, DVD-R storage space costs 1/3rd of what hard drive space costs. (and those cost orders of magnitude less than what flash drive space costs)
So, the question is, when do you use DVDs, and when do you use hard drives?
lean DVD: when the files are "finalized" and unlikely to ever change
- MP3s
- pictures and movies (whether self-authored, or porn collections)
- console game ROMs
- any other pirated content
lean DVD: when the data fits within 4.7GB
Keeping track of files across 10 DVDs is a PITA.
lean DVD: when it needs to be carried with you, and thus prone to damage
lean DVD: when you need to keep multiple copies of ~10gb in different places
Hard drives have the cost overhead of including the read/write mechanism with them, making drives less than $100 uneconomical.
lean hard drive: when it's much bigger than 4.7GB