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printz

Massive long term backup: external hard disk or many DVDs?

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I want to make a backup of large files that are not meant to be modified. Which storage medium is more reliable for long term (decade long) keeping? An external HDD, or burning on DVDs? I'm tending towards DVDs, since the HDD is magnetic and can be affected by fields. What about BDs (when I get a BD writer, that is)?

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Discs are more reliable, but it takes more effort than simply dragging a file to window. I've had my external for many years and it hasn't gave up on me yet. Although i've heard some pretty scary horror stories about IO errors and such.

In my opinion, i'd go with a HDD, but you MUST take care of it. And don't buy any shady brands.

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My external hard drive was used quite infrequently, placed safely in a reasonably dust-free place, never moved, and it worked fine until one day it didn't. When plugged in the computer, instead of its normal bootup noise, there was some horrible repeated thudsrrrrk which were probably the read/write head attempting to perform trepanation on the platter.

My advice is to wear belts and suspenders both: save to both an external harddrive and a bunch of DVD.

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I use an external 1TB drive for backing stuff up. I could use another drive at this point, since one my older 500GB, My Book's control board died and the drive was only making clicking noises, so I ripped the drive out of the case and installed it internally in my comp. It still works after a year or more, but it needs to be replaced. Thinking about getting a new 2 TB drive and then using it as the backup.

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printz said:

Which storage medium is more reliable for long term (decade long) keeping?

Archival grade DVDs are claimed to be good for up to 100 years if not exposed to direct sunlight, temperature extremes or excessive handling. A light-proof storage box in a corner of your wardrobe should do nicely for several decades. You can also minimise soft errors by burning DVDs at half their rated speed.

For files you want to archive but still have ready access to - I'd suggest DVD and HDD.

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For very long term, I dont think I'd go with the HDD option due to the evolution of interfaces... in 20-30 years or whatever when you take it out of the closet, will it even be possible to find a SATA motherboard, or USB cable/motherboard?

Unless maybe you are ultra nerdy and want to run a RAID machine, maintaining it and replacing faulty drives as needed, upgrading the technology as it changes, etc.?

With how widespread DVDs have become, I think it is reasonable to assume that that technology will continue to be supported, even if only by niche vendors (sortof like how today you can get USB record players). So yeah, the archival grade DVDs that GreyGhost mentioned, and possibly from 2-3 different manufacturers if you're paranoid.

We're talking about a porn collection, aren't we

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How much porn data? I have a small amount of important stuff I keep on a DVD, confident it will last for the rest of my life.

The operative word here being "small". If we're talking about hundreds of gigabytes then I don't think I'd have the patience to write all that to DVDs, unless you have like twenty writers on the go simultaneously. A HDD sounds like an easier option. Not sure how reliable BD writers are, but if what I wanted to keep would fit on two or three disks then I guess I might go with that.

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i'd also like to know what is best to do. currently i have all my music (which is now close to 715 GB) on my external harddrive, as well as some other stuff. i could burn some of it on DVDs, but burning all of it on DVDs would be extremely cost-worthy. i'd very much not want to lose all the music i have on the drive, so any tips on what to do with that (it's a 1TB Elemental drive, by the way)?

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I tend to go with external hard disks. The best back-up is one you're actually going to make, so ease of use is important.

But I don't just rely on a single external hard disk. When I get a new external hard disk, I tend to copy the contents of older HDDs onto it. As the newer one is likely to be much larger than those from a few years ago, the whole of the old one will only occupy a portion of the new one. That way, I end up with several back-ups of older files, so that when I do need to get some old data, I won't be relying on one particular disk still being OK.

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DVDs for me.

I have noname CDs that have lasted me 15 years so far and still work and I didn't even need anything thats on them in the last 5 years.

@Doomhuntress: Looks like $30 worth of DVDs to me. I'd totally go with it.

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Are SSDs any good for long-term archivals? Given they have no mechanical parts and are a lot faster than HDDs, but have a limited (though quite high now) amount of rewrites allowed, it seems like they'd be good for bulk backups if they can be counted on for a long shelf life.

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Gez said:

Are SSDs any good for long-term archivals?

Power-down data retention appears to be about 10 years for a drive that's seen little use, much like flash drives.

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Gez said:

Are SSDs any good for long-term archivals?

Do they have enough available space per money unit?

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The only downside to SSDs are that they aren't in large enough sizes (usually 200GB max IIRC) and are expensive compared to external HDDs.

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Gez said:

Are SSDs any good for long-term archivals? Given they have no mechanical parts and are a lot faster than HDDs, but have a limited (though quite high now) amount of rewrites allowed, it seems like they'd be good for bulk backups if they can be counted on for a long shelf life.


I see the following problems with them:

  • Limited storage time when off the power grid. If you dig-in the specs, you'll find that the "guaranteed" time for data permanence is 5-10 years for most types of Flash memory.
  • Indeed, there are no mechanical parts but there are many more electronic parts, and a good deal of traditional HD failures come from electronics alone. There's no reason to believe those in SSDs are any more reliable or robust, at least not with consumer-grade stuff.
  • Just like hard disks, the electronics interface might be a consideration several years from now. E.g. I have a 300 GB IDE HD which while in perfect condition, the motherboards it can work correctly with -due to the large size- are few and far between, and soon many mobos will not include a single IDE connector. The same thing could happen to e.g. SATA 1 interfaces in a few years from now. DVD-R/ROM/RW OTOH are guaranteed to be supported for decades to come, just like CD-Audio and CD-ROM/R/RW.
Finally, I've had several external HD crashes. The only "eternal" data in my possession are those that "lived" on burned CD-Rs, DVD-Rs etc.

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Don't HDDs have the added problem of being magnetic and sensitive to external magnetic fields? Or are they well screened?

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printz said:

Don't HDDs have the added problem of being magnetic and sensitive to external magnetic fields? Or are they well screened?


They are very well screened. You'd need the magnetic power of a magnestar orbiting the earth to be able to affect the recording on a HDD's surface with the cover on.

The same magnetic field, ironically, would be much more likely to affect the function of charge-movement-based devices, aka most electronics, especially Flash memories that rely on trapping electrical charges.

The bottom line is still: stuff recorded on an inert and -hopefully- chemically stable piece of plastic with no moving or electronics parts (other than itself), cannot be easily outperformed by something with complex mechanics and/or something loaded with microscopic, delicate electronics, at least not at the current state of "consumer-level" stuff.

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