Options for long term storage

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RisseN

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Hi All,

What's the best option for long term storage of data? The common options that come to mind are:
-DVD
-External HDD
-Blu Ray
-Flash disc

Are dual layer dvd's worth looking into?

What do you suggest for backing up data? why?

thanks.
 
Last edited:
RisseN said:
Hi All,

What's the best option for long term storage of data? The common options that come to mind are:
-DVD
-External HDD
-Blu Ray
-Flash disc

Are dual layer dvd's worth looking into?

What do you suggest for backing up data? why?

thanks.
Click to expand...

My 1st question would be what type of data is it? And how much of it do you have!

All my media(movies series etc) is redundant to one failure, so if one drive fails i can recover, if two fail at the same time i cant i loose the two drives etc.

My Photos are also one drive failure and then i also have an external HDD which i keep as a backup(this is updated monthly or a shorter period if i have taken a lot of photos in that month).

The reason i ask what your are backing up is because to burn 8TB to DVD is not worth the pain. If its 10GB of documents then burning 2 or 3 DVDs is okay. Backing it up online is okay. Keeping it on a flash drive is okay.
 
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Thanks for the reply.

I have about 2TB worth of movies and music. But I also have a lot of actual information which I need to store (documents etc).

I know it wouldn't be feasable to go through all existing 2TB and back it up to individual dvd's. So im happy to back that up to another HDD.

But im more looking at what I should do going forward. Each time I get a new movie, document or what ever it is, I want to back it up with the idea that it will be left alone for years. In other words about once a week ill be backing stuff up.

thanks.
 
I have 2x 2TB - one in a external housing.

I keep the external at work and bring it home once a month to do my backups of music, pictures and videos, not ideal (if my drive fails on day 29 that will suck) but at least it protects 99% of the stuff from failure, fire and theft.

The documents and important things are stored in the cloud.
 
If you have large amounts of data only hdd is viable. Imagine baking up 5TB+ of home/family movies on dvd's. While blueray does hold 5-6 times more data you still need 100's of disks. And with blueray the price is another issue! My opinion is: For large amounts of data use hdd. For small amounts (less then 100GB), use dvd's. Anything else is a waste of time and money.
 
HDD > DVD.
I've had DVDs of varying nature (Sahara -> HP/Verbatim) die on me for no reason at all. Harddisks are cheaper per GB and will last longer than DVD's or other disks.
 
Ok cool, so an external hard drive sounds like the way to go. I was just worried that it wouldn't last as long as dvd's.

Are most external HDD's good enough for long term storage? Does it matter 2.5" vs 3.5"?

USB powered vs plug point power?

thanks.
 
bump re which type of HDD is better. If it matters?
 
I backup all my blurays and things to SSD.

it's a little costly though...

just kidding, heheh
 
RisseN said:
Ok cool, so an external hard drive sounds like the way to go.
Click to expand...

Will you keep it on 2 hard-drives? Because if you don't the external isn't a backup and don't be surprised if you lose everything.

RAID is the cheapest option.
 
Gnome said:
Will you keep it on 2 hard-drives? Because if you don't the external isn't a backup and don't be surprised if you lose everything.

RAID is the cheapest option.
Click to expand...

Yup what im thinking is to buy an external drive and duplicate everything I need saved on there. Going foward ill backup everything to that external while keeping the original as well so that ill have the same thing in two places.

My only real question with this thread was what was best for long term storage. External HDD or DVD. I was concerned about damage, degradation etc. ie: do hard drives pack up after a few years? Do dvd's pack up after a few years?
 
recordable DVDs store the data on a layer of organic dye. It will deteriorate over time, and has a certain life expectancy which differs from manufacturer to manufacturer. It also depends on the environment it is stored in, but IMO, redundant HDDs >>> DVDs.
 
RisseN said:
Yup what im thinking is to buy an external drive and duplicate everything I need saved on there. Going foward ill backup everything to that external while keeping the original as well so that ill have the same thing in two places.

My only real question with this thread was what was best for long term storage. External HDD or DVD. I was concerned about damage, degradation etc. ie: do hard drives pack up after a few years? Do dvd's pack up after a few years?
Click to expand...

Both get damaged over time (nothing lasts forever). Hard-drives are more cost effective however and have a fairly standard life expectancy VS. optical storage which is a lucky packet.

The most reliable backup solution, used by large companies are tape backups, although it is incredible expensive.

Note that duplicating across 2 drives still isn't very safe. Data can easily get corrupted without you knowing and a drive can still have multi bit errors. For example: Drive 1 fails, drive 2 has bad sectors. No way will you recover everything.

Which is why I recommend, time & again, RAID-z, it is a file system that offers RAID 5 like redundancy but focused on data integrity (actual RAID 5 isn't actually very good for data integrity as research has proven). It also offers snapshots which is a backup solution (RAID is not a backup solution).

FreeNAS is the simplest and cheapest way to get a RAID-z NAS running.
 
but what against fire and theft (more likely in S.A than a HDD failing :P)
 
Are DVDs/Blurays okay for short term storage? (by short term I mean a couple of years... 4-5?)
 
reedOsama said:
Are DVDs/Blurays okay for short term storage? (by short term I mean a couple of years... 4-5?)
Click to expand...

I've had good DVD's, written for storage, die on me after six months without ever having used them after writing them. They were stored in their cases in a drawer....
 
froot said:
I've had good DVD's, written for storage, die on me after six months without ever having used them after writing them. They were stored in their cases in a drawer....
Click to expand...

Thanks sucks! What use are dvd's then for storage...

Rather go for a hard drive I guess?
 
RisseN said:
Thanks sucks! What use are dvd's then for storage...

Rather go for a hard drive I guess?
Click to expand...

And then again I've had dvd's that have lasted me years. I suppose it all comes down to an exact composition of factors, unknown to humanity :p

I also suggest that using a harddrive is best.
 
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