Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: ElPolloDiabl on September 18, 2010, 08:55:21 AM
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Hi, Which is the best media for long term storage... A DVD-R, a CD-R, USB Flash drive, good quality hard drive, tape?
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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 :)
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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!
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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 )
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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 ;)
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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 :D
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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...
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Regardless of media, I recommend using par2 (http://www.quickpar.org.uk/) 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).
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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.
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I would prefer CD over DVD as the Data Density is much lower and it seems to have more redundancies.
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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
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Unfortunately the capacity is rather limited, even if it was enough for the 10 commandments
And look what happened to them; they were lost, regenerated and altered many times up through the time, so we today have a whole bunch of so called 10 commandments, each cult with their own corrupted copy :)
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There were (are?) CDs and DVDs that use a gold layer rather than just silver that supposedly increases the life to something like 80 to 100 years and are still pretty cheap.
I personally still have SyQuest 270 hard drive cartridges with data that is about 20 years old, and is still there. They made up to 2Gb cartridges I believe. Don't confuse these with the junk that ZIP (IOmega?) drives used.
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Hi, Which is the best media for long term storage... A DVD-R, a CD-R, USB Flash drive, good quality hard drive, tape?
Paper ironically. Next is stone (Suffers from problems relating being not very flexible), Paper is flexible and if kept inside a reasonably priced stone or lead box might survive 5 or 6 civilisations, another option is firing it off into space, no air to degrade the storage medium, it is anticipated that Voyager 1 and 2 might outlast the human species unless they bump into something first.
For us mere mortals the best form of long term storage is "refreshing your long term storage" every year or two. We are now hold patient data that goes back to the 70's, its gone from.....Punch - Magnetic Tape - Floppy Disk - Hard Disk - CD - DVDRAM - Back to Magnetic Tape and now to hard disk in two places or 3 if you count data centers backup too.
More than 1 copy is the key to long term storage, crack that and you laughing.
Ironically we had the answer all the time...Mr Caxton and Gutenberg...Make lots of copies and they survive centuries.
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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've always found an elephant works just fine for me. a bugger getting it back under the bed though!
Seriously, I use external hard drives, more cost effective per gigabyte than DVDs and a hell of a lot less hassle. What is it now - about £30 for a 500GB HDD? In saying that though I do still use QIC80 and DAT24 tapes in the retro PCs just for that retro feeling.
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Regular paper that you buy at Woolys or K-Mart is *not* acid free, it will die in a decade or two, acid free paper will last much longer...
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Then..
What happen with the Pendrives?.. Why its not a safety storage way?
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Paper ironically.
What about a metal plate with the data etched on to it? If the metal is non-corrosive then it will almost last for ever :)
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What about a metal plate with the data etched on to it? If the metal is non-corrosive then it will almost last for ever :)
i.e like Voyager 1 and 2 then ;) Expensive tho, those plates on them cost a far few quid.
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if you use dvd R cd rs not that l had any problems keep them out direct sunlight
avoid using lables on the disc itself and your have no problems
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Nothing. The trick is to cycle through duplicate back ups. What I have found is that the new USB storage devices are so large on a conventional machine you can keep several copies of everything and never worry about data loss. I did have old PCs that I had salvaged networked just for hard drives. The Amiga OS and software is so small I could copy most stuff in a fraction of time. I gave up with CD's and DVDs cus of access. You really cant beat a couple of either external USB drives or series of old PCs. Just make several copies of everything and have a backup routine. I have the Amiga networked to several machines and have FTP access to my online storage.
If you want your stuff to last for life then get a domain, online storage, spread it across the web and give others access to it. Interestingly I have been asked by several people to keep copies of their Amiga OS and software cus there machine had broken. I have special areas on my website for storage of information and software and have even a second domain with hosting for all my demo and PD disks.
Someone also pointed out that stone outlives everything.
CDs and DVDs are worse than floppies cus once damaged the whole thing is shot, at least with floppies I could salvage something. I really don`t trust any removable media. Its also a pain to find stuff and the drives get updated all the time as does software.
You can pick up an old PC for a couple of quid and stick in a couple of hard drives and using even a crude parnet can safely transfer your beloved Amiga software. Also get SCSI on the Amiga off a Blizzard or Squirrel and get a couple of external drives with 4GB hard drives in them. Mac style old ones. As I say the Amiga OS is so small would take an age to fill.
Backup and duplication is the key. And being able to get at the data ' all the time ' not by sifting through endless discs, disks etc etc.