What is the largest DVD I can burn?

[jbrown]

Sorry if this is a bit of a basic question -

What are the largest DVD's I can burn on my MacBookPro? And what kind should I look for?

I have a 2.66 MBP Intel Core i7 bought last year. I want to off-load a lot of old files to clear space.

cheers

 

[Minhthien]

Sorry if this is a bit of a basic question -

What are the largest DVD's I can burn on my MacBookPro? And what kind should I look for?

I have a 2.66 MBP Intel Core i7 bought last year. I want to off-load a lot of old files to clear space.

cheers

External HD will solved this problem! DVD take too long to burn! Back up on DVD is an old technology!

btw I think its 4.7gb for each DVD

 

[jbrown]

External HD will solved this problem! DVD take too long to burn! Back up on DVD is an old technology!

btw I think its 4.7gb for each DVD

All fine until the external HD malfunctions and you lose the lot ( happened to my girlfriend ) -

PS - aren't DL DVDs dual layer - ie 8 gig?

 

[gr8tfly]

A DL disc can hold over 8GB. I like Verbatim, but most brands should work fine.

You can see all the formats you can burn by going to Menu > About this Mac..., then click More Info..., then System Details (in Lion) or just More Info in SL. Then, select Disk Burning from the list on the left. Capacity will be shown when a disc is loaded.

If you burn the discs from the Finder, they will automatically be formatted as hybrids - both HFS+ and ISO-9660. You can setup the same in Toast.

 

[hafr]

All fine until the external HD malfunctions and you lose the lot ( happened to my girlfriend ) -

PS - aren't DL DVDs dual layer - ie 8 gig?

Hard drives "last longer" and are a lot safer than DVD:s, but should an accident happen you lose everything instead of only one part of your backup.

If you're happy having a hundred DVD's lying around to minimize the risk of losing everything at once, that's fine. But I'd rather just get two hard drives and have a double backup...

 

[heisenberg123]

Why DVDs for backup an external 1TB harddrive is about $90

 

[snaky69]

All fine until the external HD malfunctions and you lose the lot ( happened to my girlfriend ) -

PS - aren't DL DVDs dual layer - ie 8 gig?

Chances are you internal and external drives won't both fail at once.

If you intend to backup a lot of data, writing to DVD will take ages, I still think you should consider an external HD.

 

[OllyW]

Chances are you internal and external drives won't both fail at once.

They want to back up the files so they can delete them from the internal drive.

 

[snaky69]

They want to back up the files so they can delete them from the internal drive.

I never keep important files in only one place, that's the surest way to lose them.

 

[old-wiz]

I never keep important files in only one place, that's the surest way to lose them.

Right! Anything that is really important should be kept in multiple places.

 

[Dhelsdon]

You could always encrypt them into an image file or something if you're paranoid of it getting stolen, throw it onto an external drive then lock the drive somewhere safe in your house or something.