Two-Drive Archiving Workflow

When it comes time to archive to optical disk, I do it in a batch; assembly-line style using two drives.

Over time, I organize the files in folders named with their proposed volume names. I can preview the size of each folder to confirm that its files will fit on the media I plan to burn it to. This naming convention is appended with a unique code that cannot be repeated…the date! For example, “Images 20111028” wherein the date is that of the most recent file on that disk.

Once everything is staged, I can burn when I have a free moment, working from the oldest volume to the newest. I burn on the external drive, and when it’s finished verifying, I eject it and place it into the internal drive. This ensures that it will in fact mount using the internal drive (some burns may not compatible the first time around, or even between certain drives, although I’ve never encountered the latter).

I then use this drive to catalog the disk (currently I’m using CD Finder) while I load a blank optical disk in the external drive and start burning that. When I eject the cataloged disk from the internal drive, I write the volume name in the clear section near the hole with a Sharpie. (Never write anything on the data area; over time, the chemicals in the marker can eat their way through the lacquer coating on the “label” side and damage the reflective metallic coating on the data layer, causing possible data loss.)

This helps to speed up an otherwise arduous task.