How To Get Started Backing Up Onto M-Disc (Optical Media Archival)

How to get started backing up on to the M-Disc long term archival storage optical medium intended for highly durable cold storage of data.

Check out the Restore It All Podcast:

M-Disc episodes:

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By: Daniel Rosehill

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Unless otherwise indicated, all videos I distribute through YouTube are licensed under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

[nosuchthing]

Good point at 18:15. If you have a few m disc writers/readers around, you can just check the news etc to see if its viable. We can always move to sonething else.

[JamesSmith-ixjd]

Here we go - another rabbit hole and now I want to backup everything on blu ray disks 😅

[DesertPunks]

This is exactly the video I'm looking for, thanks for uploading

[ОнуфрийНечепуренко]

The reason people still use DVDs for archiving is because it's more primitive (and therefore more reliable) technology. The fewer layers you have on a disc, the more reliable the storage. The larger the physical bits of information on an optical disc, the more reliable the storage. If you're recording large amounts of data like videos, you have no choice but to use a Blu-ray. But if you're storing a password database, a personal diary, or a research paper, then DVDs are a better choice.

[SeaJay_Oceans]

Verbatim M-Disc is a real life saver for YouTubers and other video professionals - backup all the works on Drives, Flash, and M-Disc, and storing the M-Discs Off Site...
Mains Electric power being what it is, sometimes Zaps! drives / PCs dead... But the 100GB M-Discs are safe and sound.

[OShackHennessy]

We all need to go out and buy more M-disks to keep them going. I just bought some this morning!

[moosekatdeluxe]

Do you think M-Disk is still the best option for long term archiving in 2024? I have about 1.5tb of photos and videos from the last 25 years that i just cannot even contemplate losing. They are already cloud backed up as well as at home but bitrot scares the life outta me.

[alexusfort]

Hello, i have burnt my first m-disc yesterday. There were only photos and it takes 23 GB out of 25 disc. But it looks a bit strange because the color of surface of that recorded disc changed only in half? Inner part looks just a little lighter then widest. Do you know why is it so? Thanks

[alexisamico]

Thank you! I’m looking for a way to store family photos and documents that either are born digital or that I’ve digitized. The technique used until it got to me was to pass the files around from hard drive backup to hard drive backup 😅 not great for archiving. I’m definitely going to try out Mdisk now! It seems a lot better than any other format that I know about.

[Heliarc]

Any suggestions on burning hardware and software for writing to M disks?

I bought some M disks, thinking my little dvd burner could do it. Nope.

What i found on my own basically was i needed a high end burner (doable) but also to PURCHASE software to do it.

If anyone has suggestions to do this for free, like free software and a burner that would work. I appreciate it

[zomalfa]

The top drive at 10:42 you can just attach a cable or something? Or does it need a tower type computer?

[grahamwhibley]

I have a Pi0neer BDR-S12XLT drive and 100gb m-discs but seem only to be able to record 25gb any help?

[douglasfellows]

Hi Daniel! Thanks for making all these videos, been going down an archival rabbit hole and think I'll be going the M-Disc route. Genuinely curious if there's a way to burn a large project lets say 500gb. Taking cost into account the 25gb disc seem to be the most reasonable, I don't mind if I had to burn multiple discs. The last burning software I used was Toast Titanium lol. I'm a bit out of the loop with what's possible, would I need to manual separate my project into lets say 23gb segments or would Burnaware prompt me to "insert the next disc"

[pt]

Awesome video and I love your channel! From what I've been able to tell from a few days of online searching, standard HTL Blu-Rays also use an inorganic etching material for the data pits. I haven't been able to find any information regarding other potential differences between these Blu-Ray M-Discs and HTL Blu-Rays, other than perhaps the quality assurance may be a bit higher, though my cynicism in me suggests that these are all coming off of similar if not identical manufacturing equipment and the M-Disc brand is being used to evoke the warranted advantage it had over standard DVD-Rs back in those days. Regardless even if these discs are all the same, I'm very happy that we are at a point now where we can confidently etch our digital data for future generations :).

[alexlandherr]

Could I write the folder resulting from ripping a Blu-Ray with MakeMKV to a M-Disc (say to a 100 GB one) for backup purposes?

[TG-fyds]

Have you tried burning the 50gb double layer or 100gb triple layer M discs? If so how did that go? I tried the 100gb ones on two different high $ drives (asus and pioneer) that were both rated for BDXL TL but disc burns would only validate up to the first layer - second layer transition. That was using burnaware latest version then also tried power2go 8 and 11 with same result. For now I am going to order more 25gb SL discs so I can move on with archiving.

[tannuroakes]

I am convinced that this is what I want to go with with my family photos and super sensitive documents.

After listening to the podcasts mentioned the founder said that theoretically some drives will do a better job writing than others. Trying to find reliable documentation on which blu ray writers would be best (ideally external as I run on a laptop due to the nature of my work). Has anyone found or can tell me what they are using? Also reliable brand/supplier for the discs as I am always afraid of Amazon selling me a knockoff?

[espaiz]

Hi, I just found out about m-disc, I was looking for long archival methods. is there any new similar format that can store more data?

[DIFLAZIO]

Thank you for good video
Can you burn M-disc with Verbatim 43888 ?
I read it is problem with windows 11 ?
I also read it is problem with the software i do not know if that was Nero, what can i use if it is problem ?
I want to buy the 43888 as soon as possibel or do you have a better model ?

[ryanpaaz]

I sent some standard BD-R's through the mail that are now coasters. Unfortunately it was my only copy of the data. They weren't the highest quality blanks and definitely NOT m-disc's. I'm burning some data to Mdiscs now, but I herd you mention in this video that you'd send discs through the post. I think mine ended up becoming coasters not because of the soft sleeves I kept them in, but I think the x-rays from shipping damaged them. I've read elsewhere that x-rays can damage BD-R's. Are mdisc's susceptible? Good to know if you're ever going to go through an airport with them, or through the mail.