Storage System for Thousands of CDs and DVDs?

Lucy V. asks: "My husband works for a firm in New York that receives customer data on CD and DVD. After copying the data to their server, they are required to retain the original media for several months until the job is delivered and the customer has approved the work. It is common for the firm to have 30,000 CD's and DVD's on hand at any one time. They are struggling to find a better storage solution than what they have now as the current setup is awkward and requires quite a bit of space. They are removing the media from the jewel case and slipping them into one of those large notebook style disk holders and then storing the notebook on a shelf. I have spent quite a bit of time doing web searches for CD and DVD storage but nearly all the racks that I find are low capacity ones intended for home use. I have found one vendor called Can-Am that makes a high quality steel drawer system that might fit the bill." Has anyone found (or put together) a storage system that can handle thousands of discs?

CD Hook-on Files

[neonprimetime]

CD Hook-on Files like these [connectworld.net] work well. I've seen them used, for example, and cd / video exchange stores, etc.

Imation Disc Stakka

[Fbelch]

Maybe something like this might be what you are looking for....

http://www.imation.com/products/disc_stakka/index. html [imation.com]

- Stack units up to five high to create a tower that holds up to 500 discs without any extra cabling or rebooting your computer.
- Connect towers using powered USB hubs to control over 100 towers (that's over 50,000 discs) from a single computer.

Re:Dump the ISOs...

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like you need to RTFS: "After copying the data to their server, they are required to retain the original media for several months until the job is delivered and the customer has approved the work."

Storage solutions

[iotashan]

Did any of you even read the article? They need to store the physical media, after it has already been archived to another data storage system.

I'd check out any of the big-boys that deal with large-scale, physical storage.

The one company I can think of off the top of my head is Spacesaver. If you've ever seen a hospital's records storage system, it was probably a Spacesaver unit.

They even claim CD/DVD support:
http://www.spacesaver.com/appl_cat.asp?cat_id=4 [spacesaver.com]

Offsite storage is the answer

[Anonymous Coward]

It's pretty obvious that most slashdot readers either can't read the article they are replying to or don't understand the logistics of physical media storage.

You mentioned physical space requirements and organization being one issue but another issue you did not mention is physical security. If you just have a bunch of shelves from ikea lining the office what is stopping someone from just grabbing some CDs and walking off with them? Best bet would be offsite storage and I would recomend Iron Mountain [ironmountain.com]. We maintain over 100,000 full home closing documents with them at any given time and when doing a CBA between their fees and what we would spend on warehouse space and staff it's a no brainer. Since your husband is doing this work for clients I would just pass the fee onto them as a billable expense.

Keep in mind, offsite storage facilities charge money for collection, monthly storage and media retrieval. Retrieval can take up to 3 days, but many offer emergency retrieval that can get you your stuff within a couple hours for a premium. That's why it's good to keep electronic versions on site, which your husband already does.

Cardboard boxes and folders are not a longterm viable option.

Professional Archive cabinets

[oneiros27]

Lots of companies make cabinets for large scale archiving for data centers and the like. They don't tend to be cheap, but they can pack them rather densely:

      http://www.russbassett.com/products/cabinets_disc. cfm [russbassett.com]
      http://www.can-am.ca/cdvideo1.htm [can-am.ca]

There are also moving shelf options, but they normally are for mixed media (tapes, cds, etc), and you have to buy the shelves, then fill it with media packs to hold the type of media you're storing:

      http://www.systems-supply.com/nms2k/edpstorage.htm [systems-supply.com]
      http://www.russbassett.com/media/products_disc.cfm [russbassett.com]

If you're going for cheap and densely packed, I'd probably re-sleeve them and drop them into a drawered cabinet, but you'll need to make sure they're well organized if you expect to ever find them again.

Robotics!

[Kouroth]

If you have the money and will:
Contract a robotics company to build you a huge multi-disk changer. Take a design similar to those multi-disk changers that hold a hundred disks and just make it bigger. That would cut down on storage space and also make accessing the disks much easer. The investment cost may be high but the end result should pay off in the long run.

Re:Paper boxes?

[walt-sjc]

Exactly. A simple box like this one [buyonlinenow.com] where you use standard paper sleeves with the disks. Label each sleeve with a sequential serial number, and enter the info into a database. If you have multiple different retention periods, you have several boxes going at once - one for each period.

Put the range of disk numbers on the front of the box.

If you want to get fancy, use a prefix that indicates the retention period (6m-123 is not the same as 6y-123)

CanAM is the way to go

[boogahboogah]

Although they are a little on the expensive side (for personal use...), there is nothing better. Each drawer holds lots & lots & lots of CD's, you can stack their two drawer & three drawer models, thay have matching accessory racks (for components or CPUs or ?... , and they have a lock setup that's not too bad (but not crowbar proof...).

Have two units at home for the music collection, works great. Gave away those other cd racks that only held 1-200 CD's, they were just such a waste of floor space...

Re:Interns and Cake Containers

[twistedsymphony]

Use the above mentioned CD labeling system.
Place CD's in 208/300 CD/DVD binder.
Get shelving that will fit the Binders (Ikea IVAR works great for adjustments)

FTFA:

They are struggling to find a better storage solution than what they have now as the current setup is awkward and requires quite a bit of space. They are removing the media from the jewel case and slipping them into one of those large notebook style disk holders and then storing the notebook on a shelf.

Sounds like that's about what they currently do and it's not working out for them.

Re:Interns and Cake Containers

[daeg]

That's why I suggested cake containers instead of binders. Binders are great for when you use CDs or DVDs frequently, e.g., music or movies that you would like quick access to and when reading the face of a CD/DVD is useful. However, if you simply label CDs sequentially and never (rarely) need access, you can stack them a few hundred to a case. Label them in series chronologically. When you need to make space on your shelves, simply follow FIFO -- reduce from the lowest sequence up.

Binders waste a lot of space when you don't care what the CD face says.

The only thing to be careful of is a labeling system for the CDs. Sharpee is probably best. Sticky labels can off-balance the CD and make it hard to read in picky readers.

Do what Netflix, or ehit.com do to store its dvds!

[MrRayliu]

Netflix put them in file cabinets in rows and rows of disk in sleeves. Each disk is barcode or numbered. Or you can alphabitcally them. You can do a google image search on on netflix to see the look of the cabinet. I run an online dvd rental store at www.ehit.com. If you want to save money on making the boxes, you can have the boxes make out of cardboard to your size and dimension. The cost is really low. And then stock them into a sliding shelf or rack. This way I don't see any problem in store all your dvds in a room. Help this will help! Ray Liu

Re:Imation Disc Stakka

[Sparr0]

http://dansdata.com/quickshot005.htm [dansdata.com]

Holds 50% more discs for 25% less price.

I had the DC-101, it was awesome. The 300 is supposed to be superior in every way.

RAID USB 2.0 DRIVES

[i621148]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1784288&Sku=B175-1008 [tigerdirect.com]

30000 DVDs X 5 GB ISO FILES = 150000 GB
150000 GB / 300 GB = 500 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES
500 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES X $114.99 = $57,495

Re:Bookshelf or spools?

[couchslug]

There are plenty of good commercial solutions to storing such items. Automated rotary and sliding shelving systems are available where you may manually or electronically select the item you want. Bookshelf systems are available (we use them for USAF Tech Order binders) so if you want to store binders of DVDs it's no problem. They are robust enough for industrial tool cribs, and specc'ing an enclosure or fireproof room if required is routine (though expensive).
If your facility has the room, 20 or 40-foot ISO shipping containers can be used as internal or external storage. They are gasketed, easy to secure, fireproof, and storm-resistant. They are easily fitted with power and lighting at less than the cost of new construction. SeaBox makes custom commercial and military containers and could do something suitable.

Re:Bookshelf or spools?

[itwerx]

Parent is correct.

Also, Google is your friend:
      http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=media+cab inet+%22data+center%22&btnG=Search [google.com]

(Need the phrase "data center" in there or you'll get a zillion home entertainment centers instead!)