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Nightmare - External hard drive crashes to floor

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SavannahLion:

--- Quote from: saint on February 19, 2010, 10:24:00 am ---I have completely abandoned optical media for backup. I keep copies of my data in multiple places (original on each machine, duplicate on the server in the house, another duplicate on my work machine), but I think the most brilliant backup addition I did was to buy thumb drives. Stick important stuff on a thumb drive, and put it in my fireproof locking safe in the house. Small, relatively cheap, and getting bigger all the time.

--- End quote ---

Like what was mentioned elsewhere, I haven't seen any reliable data on using thumb drives for long term storage. (I had to assist someone on that research about three years ago. I'm sure there must be some research? bleh) There's been extensive studies on optical media dating all the way back to the hideous LD stuff. You see it all the time when someone bitches about bitrot on the LD games.

There have also been studies done on the long term viability of HDD. The current accepted method for "storing" HDD for archival purposes is to actually disconnect the drive and store the computer and the HDD in a low temp environment. Obviously no studies have been done on bad caps  ::)

But Saint nailed it on the head. The key to storing digital records is duplication duplication duplication and to do it across as many different types of media as feasible.

danny_galaga:

I'm not an expert, but RTS is saying it is probably physically damaged. I can't imagine ANY recover software is going to help...

protokatie:
I would actually suggest optical (and this is the reason why I suggested it) was for yearly updated off-site backup. That DVD-R isnt going to die in a year.

My basic thoughts for optical: Make two optical backup copies (this is on top of having another copy on your NAS so total of 4 copies) and keep one at home and another offsite (safe deposit box). Every year, recopy all the data to be backed up, label them, and store them. This way you are refreshing the data each year. BTW this is only for the MOST important of your data, which should normally fit on a few DVD-r's at a low cost per year. This sort of backup is so your most precious memories have a backup somewhere (and the yearly update will keep it up to date) (add to that any new data that should be copied immediatly)

SavannahLion:

--- Quote from: protokatie on February 20, 2010, 01:19:13 am ---I would actually suggest optical (and this is the reason why I suggested it) was for yearly updated off-site backup. That DVD-R isnt going to die in a year.

My basic thoughts for optical: Make two optical backup copies (this is on top of having another copy on your NAS so total of 4 copies) and keep one at home and another offsite (safe deposit box). Every year, recopy all the data to be backed up, label them, and store them. This way you are refreshing the data each year. BTW this is only for the MOST important of your data, which should normally fit on a few DVD-r's at a low cost per year. This sort of backup is so your most precious memories have a backup somewhere (and the yearly update will keep it up to date) (add to that any new data that should be copied immediatly)

--- End quote ---

When you generate backups, you have to consider a key human nature, laziness. I can guarantee that after three to five years of creating "yearly refreshes" of that data, a person is going to postpone the next refresh to next year. Then it'll be five years. Then you're going to work on that massive project which postpones it further and next thing you know, ten or fifteen or even twenty five years have passed.

You can't setup a archival program requires additional work and expect anyone to keep that up on a consistent basis. The best practice is to set up a "create it and leave it alone" kind of thing.

I always thought it would be an interesting project to build a disc juke box that does its own scheduled "maintainence" and backup of archived discs. For example, a database that earmarks DVDs for scheduled examination and data verification automatically generating new backups as necessary. But with the cost of HDDs and SSDs dropping faster than one could build such a juke, it's kind of a moot point.

protokatie:
SL, I see your point but another one that enforces periodic refresh is not only that HDDs die over time (electrolytic caps for instance) but that all standards are replaced about every 10 years. Luckily we will have USB and ATA/IDE/EIDE/PATA/SATA for awhile, but you cannot count on it. Even if the periodic backup was only once every few years, it would still be valid. On top of that, as far as laziness goes; we all make our own beds.

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