OT: Optical disc offers 500GB storage

craftech wrote on 5/9/2009, 4:57 AM
"A disc that can store 500 gigabytes (GB) of data, equivalent to 100 DVDs, has been unveiled by General Electric."

I thought you might like to read the article I read and heard on the BBC.

The Micro-holographic discs hold data in three dimensions rather than just on the surface pits. The discs also have a higher reflectivity.

What puzzles me is that I had to read and hear this on the BBC when General Electric owns the NBC and MSNBC networks that (like the other networks) focus solely on rumor, innuendo, and trivia rather than the public interest. In fact, if it weren't for the BBC, I would get a lobotomy. Some of the various tech magazines and websites did cover this however.

That aside, I wonder how this would impact the slow adoption of Blu-ray in terms of the industry. Would they scrap it? Would they fail to embrace 500GB discs if Blu-ray sales picked up if and when prices become more affordable?

What do you think?

John

Comments

blink3times wrote on 5/9/2009, 5:06 AM
I can't imagine what you would use that for??? Big disks are great for movies and such... like maybe 50 gigs, but would you trust a 500 gig optical disk with any kind of valuable data? I sure as heck wouldn't.
srode wrote on 5/9/2009, 5:20 AM
As a redundant archieve it would be great - - no problems with data from EMFs. :)
craftech wrote on 5/9/2009, 5:43 AM
I can't imagine what you would use that for???
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I would think the average consumer could store a heck of a lot of movies on it.

I could back up an entire hard disc on them.

Or I could archive (as mentioned) footage provided the projected shelf life of the discs is sufficiently long.

John
blink3times wrote on 5/9/2009, 5:56 AM
And that comes back to the issue of trust. I don't mind the idea of storing a bunch of movies on a HDD (I do back up as well).... but a 500gig optical disk? One single scratch in the right place and you're off and running to the nearest data recovery agent.

As for backing up a HDD I would think that's a lot like backing up an image on a stone carving onto toilet paper. Not that HDD's can't fail because they do... but the failure rate of optical disk has been proven to be MUCH higher.
Chienworks wrote on 5/9/2009, 6:32 AM
But, if they eventually come down cheap enough, say in the under $2 range, then i'd burn half a dozen copies and store them in various places like on the shelf, in the office, in a safe, in a safe deposit box, at a friend's house, etc. The chances of all of them going bad in the same place and losing the same data is extremely small.
blink3times wrote on 5/9/2009, 7:27 AM
Even if they did come down in price to the extent they you suggest (and I have my doubts)... any idea how long it may take to burn a 500 gig disk?

At some point you do have to think about things like efficiency.... practicality... etc. Sometimes I wonder whether or not this sort of thing has an actual objective to it... or people are just doing it to say that they can.
FilmingPhotoGuy wrote on 5/9/2009, 11:34 AM
.... a lot like backing up an image on a stone carving onto toilet paper

LOL .. Hey Blink thats gotta be the best hyperbole yet.

- Craig
ushere wrote on 5/9/2009, 4:04 PM
Even if they did come down in price to the extent they you suggest (and I have my doubts)... any idea how long it may take to burn a 500 gig disk?

and any idea how long to load!?

i have various dvd drives in various pc and always amazed at exactly how long it takes for them to spin up, then read the file list into, say, explorer. some of my dvd's have literally 100's if not 1000's of files on them and they can take (what seems like) a lifetime to load when i'm in a rush.....