Which is the best media for long term storage?

[ElPolloDiabl]

Hi, Which is the best media for long term storage... A DVD-R, a CD-R, USB Flash drive, good quality hard drive, tape?

[Xanxi]

Hard-drive stored in a safe place, if you want your datas at home, or space storage somewhere on internet if you want it outside.
Anyway, double save your datas

[Astral]

A combination of all possible backup sources - although I understand that's not the most practical.

If I was to choose one, it'd be CD/DVD. Not too small that you could misplace it. Cheap, and never had one fail on me!

[loedown]

I am no expert but I've read it's best to keep;


1. As your master at home, work disk

2. Backup at home stored away somewhere out of direct light and safe

3. Backup kept somewhere else safe, other premises


I use DVD and hard drive backup via a dedicated HDD unit in mirror ( Thecus N2200 )

[bubblebobble]

A stone.

This is a pretty robust medium and can last many thousands of years.

Unfortunately the capacity is rather limited, even if it was enough for the 10 commandments

[Xanxi]

A stone.

This is a pretty robust medium and can last many thousands of years.

Unfortunately the capacity is rather limited, even if it was enough for the 10 commandments

I fully agree

[mousehouse]

It all depends on the data... how much risk are you willing to take on it?

I backup my Mac automatically to a Time Capsule. That way I always have a backup that is 1 hour out of sync at most. Then about every 3 to 4 weeks I sync my Photo's, Music,  Documents and Development folders to an external 2.5" USB harddrive that I have put somewhere safe. And about once or twice a year I burn all Photo's to DVD's and store them with my parents...

[Linde]

A stone.

This is a pretty robust medium and can last many thousands of years.

Unfortunately the capacity is rather limited, even if it was enough for the 10 commandments

I was about to suggest rock carving

But really, some kind of robust optical media should be the best for long term storage. I'm sure something better than CD is used by serious digital archivists

[the_leander]

I was about to suggest rock carving

But really, some kind of robust optical media should be the best for long term storage. I'm sure something better than CD is used by serious digital archivists

Probably something like Magneto Optical. In terms of media robustness outside of a piece of amber or a rock you're not going to get much better.

Problem is, the media and the drives are hideously expensive and the capacities are a fraction of DAT.

If you're that determined, you're probably as well off to use multiple sources for all important data. Gmail accounts make for great storage.

Then there are more specialised companies like box.net.

[Fingers]

One of my workmates is a long time music industry professional turned archivist & he swears by optical media (CD/DVD), in particular the brand Princo.

I myself use IMC branded discs & have never had any die yet

PZ.

[ElPolloDiabl]

I use DVD-R at the moment, the only problem is that fingerprints after a few years turn sticky and are hard to wipe off. Also on 1 or 2 discs the silver material flakes off near the edge and the disc becomes squirly.
What I might continue doing is label the disc backup and lock it away for five years and then check on the condition. Otherwise I will load a 1 Terabyte hard drive and store that. Give it a check every few years and then maybe retire it at 10 years.

[modrobert]

Regardless of media, I recommend using par2 to efficiently secure the data further, that way it will not matter if there are a few errors here and there, as long as you have enough par2 blocks to repair. Think of it as a flat file RAID5 system (Reed-Solomon).

[runequester]

For the few things that I want to ensure is not lost, I usually have a couple of online sources, as well as a CD or DVD.

[Heinz]

I would prefer CD over DVD as the Data Density is much lower and it seems to have more redundancies.

[jsixis]

Hard-drive stored in a safe place, if you want your datas at home, or space storage somewhere on internet if you want it outside.
Anyway, double save your datas

 I agree, stick a hard drive in your machine and once a month copy new, then unplug it