(was: Transferring from Win98)

|I would use CD-R or DVD-+R.
|
|I would not bother with ISO 9660 format.
| Richard Harris
|
You just contradicted yourself.

|Although that is a least-common denominator of DOS, UNIX, etc,
|most modern operating systems can read the normal data CD format called Joliet,
|which [supports] long file names.
|
Joliet is an *extension* of ISO 9660.
and it's "long" file names are still limited to 128 characters (ASCII)
which translates to 64 characters of Unicode (if you use that character set).
This is why I said to stick to thumbdrives and FAT32.
There files and filenames get transferred across without a ripple.

In one of the posts to which I linked, there is a link to an article
about ISO 9660, Joliet, and RockRidge that describes these limitations.

|Do not use re-writeable media like CD-RW or DVD-+RW.
|
Agree.

|They are less stable over time.  Keep all optical media in a dark place,
|and at normal room temperatures.  High temperatures can destroy them.
|
Good advice *if* none of your filenames is really long (think: Favorites).
To get full-length filenames (>128 characters ASCII) to transfer to optical media,
you have to use a compression technique.
This makes an additional variable of *what happens with a scrambled zip file?*.

|for long-term storage, avoid [redacted] magnetic media, like floppies, ZIP,
|
Yes.  (That's Iomega's proprietary Zip devices.)

|external USB drives.
|
A bit paranoid.
Re-using OLD drives can be a bit of a gamble, proportional to their previous use.
DNA touched on this.

|However, for a fast, convenient shorter-term backup,
|an external USB 2.0 disk can be very handy.
|
Let's see:  Extremely fast write times while retaining all the original filenames
onto something that can be a key fob;
if you don't balk at the price, there is no downside.

|Avoid USB flash drives.
|These have a [relatively] short life, compared to even magnetic disks.
|
...if you try to use them like RAM--**constantly** overwriting old data.
Otherwise, this is paranoia again.
If you do a weekly backup to the same thumbdrive,
its rated lifetime is in excess of 190 years.
If you rotate between 2 thumbdrives (recommended), that goes up to 380 years.
Either way, if you're not a Galapagos tortise, it will outlive you.

Doing daily backups will bring this down to a lifetime in excess of 27 years.
(...and the rated lifetimes of flash media is improving all the time.)

|Think about an off-site backup, such as keeping backups of home PC files
|at work, with a trusted friend, or in a safe-desposit box.
|
Don't *think"; DO.
Something that stays in the same location as the computer is a *mirror*
--NOT a backup.
I pointed to Francis Ford Coppola's foolishness (again, a link within a link)
which cost him DECADES of work because he kept everything in one location.

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