Dhl93449 - Maybe I was lucky, but I never experienced failure of stationary hard drive. Just in case I have 2 backups, but I agree with you that CD on the shelf is safer (unless you have fire or theft). I have three hard disks containing exact copies (one at work), but in addition I have still all CDs on the shelf.
I'm not worrying about scratching CDs either, but rather about better playback of used scratched CD that I bought. Ripping such CDs as data CD will improve quality (copy better than original).
I agree about CD-R and especially DVDs not lasting long - unless you pick better media that uses higher quality die guaranteed to last 100 years (Taiyo Yuden). On the other hand I will be deaf in 20 and dead in 40 years - why to worry now.
Good point about media obsolution. I'm already thinking of getting large Solid State (Flash) drive to copy my hard drive into it. Flash drives have limited number of write cycles but last forever with reading and have no mechanical parts - perfect for long lasting reliable music server.
I'm not worrying about scratching CDs either, but rather about better playback of used scratched CD that I bought. Ripping such CDs as data CD will improve quality (copy better than original).
I agree about CD-R and especially DVDs not lasting long - unless you pick better media that uses higher quality die guaranteed to last 100 years (Taiyo Yuden). On the other hand I will be deaf in 20 and dead in 40 years - why to worry now.
Good point about media obsolution. I'm already thinking of getting large Solid State (Flash) drive to copy my hard drive into it. Flash drives have limited number of write cycles but last forever with reading and have no mechanical parts - perfect for long lasting reliable music server.