Archiving and cataloging old projects

On or about 1/31/07 7:31 AM, thus spake "Damian" <damianop.co.za>:

> I have looked at various CD cataloguing applications such as CDFinder and
> DiskLibrary, the latter being my preference.
>
> Also, I've looked at the technique of using the "find . > "~/documents/folder
> name/name of disk.txt" method and then using Spotlight to search. But for some
> reason, I have never managed to get this to work properly.
>
> We are a small operation (husband and wife duo, yes, and still happily
> married!) so no real need for anything server based or network able, but will
> certainly consider the benefits if any.
>
> Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I still use DiskTracker:

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/5843>

However, if you are concerned about longevity - that is, if the archived
data, rather than the names of the files, is what's important to you - then
I would suggest using hard disks rather than CDs and DVDs. Assuming 90
completely full CDs, that's still only about 60 GB, which is smaller than
the cheapest external hard drive you can buy. Your data are at risk on CDs;
you are liable to wake up one morning and find much of it gone. m.

--
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On Jan 31, 2007, at 7:31 AM, Damian wrote:

> I design and typesett print and electronic books. I keep all
> completed jobs (including reprints with minor changes) in an
> archive which has grown to approximately 90 disks - early disks
> being CDs and later being DVDs. Some disks have only one job on the
> disk and other 20 or more depending on the size of the job. The
> files for each job range from pdf, tif, jpg, psd, eps, pdf,
> InDesign (ver 1-current) Qxd, fonts, etc.
>
> ...
> Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

One thought: it's not enough to keep the old projects. You also
need to ensure that as time goes forward you still have software
which can at least read them and convert to some newer, still-
supported form. As the Intel transition goes forward, one thing to
watch is that you don't find out too late that some needed tool won't
run on Intel machines.

Another: one archival copy is not enough (and the multiple copies
shouldn't be in the same place). You may already have dealt with
that. The industry doesn't yet know how long burned CDs and DVDs
last, and recommendations on the subject vary widely. While the CDs
are still readable, you should think about making copies of the
contents onto DVDs.

I'll leave questions about cataloging to others.

   --John

I second Mat Neuberg (apparently): Disktracker is the meow of the cat in this respect.

w.