Backing up DVD images to DVDR

[Kent Wang]

Maybe I'm the only one that does this, but I like to backup DVDs as an ISO image and burn them to 1 or 2 DVDRs. That's true lossless storage, though it's kinda pricy in terms of the amount of discs.

I have a bit of a complex process for doing this though. After creating an ISO file with DVD Decrypter, I split it into 100MB pieces and fill each DVDR to the brim with PAR2 (http://parchive.sourceforge.net/) files. This way even substantial damage to the discs will not corrupt the image backups. However, this whole process is a little tedious as it requires files to be split up, moved into temp folders and the amount of freespace on each disc available for PAR2 data has to be calculated. So I wrote a Linux Perl script that does all of this for me. I still have to run the PAR client myself, but this saves me a lot of mindless work.

I'm posting this to 1) describe what I think to be a robust, albeit expensive, backup solution and 2) to offer this Perl script that I wrote for anyone to use. If anyone is interested in the script, just post here, email me or PM me and I'll send it to you.

[Kent Wang]

It seems like there should be some sort of automated solution, possibly integrated into burning software like Nero, that can do this for any kind of data. Anyone know of anything like that?

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Making true 1:1 backup copies of commercial DVDs that you own, whether to one or two DVDR-5s at 30 cents each or less, or DVDR-9s at $1.50 each or less, has become commonplace since your initial post to this thread 4 years ago.

Since you'll always have your original available (presumably in safekeeping), should you damage your low cost backup copy, you can always make another one.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, I see no need or additional benefit in considering what you propose...

[Kent Wang]

What if the original disc gets damaged? The entire point of making backup discs in the first place is that they are backups and should be reliable. If you backup to two DVD-5s, then there will always be some additional space that you can use for parity data.