Durable file storage?

[buck91]

What is the best way to store moderate amounts of backup files over a long term time frame? Well maybe not absolute best, but best within reason

I have some older documents as well as my mp3 collection which is currently stored on an external HDD that I would like to have a better more durable back up for. Initial thoughts are DVD which is possible... but I probably have about 50gb which id like to back up.

 

[Donald]

I have a RAID 1 enclosure with two 2 TB hard drives. My backups go there. With RAID 1 the disks are mirrored. Should one fail, I can replace it and within an hour or two it will be a mirror. In this case, the RAID 1 technology is within the enclosure. Windows thinks its a single disk drive.

But with ransomware out there, I keep it attached , do a backup and detach.

There is also cloud based storage like Carbonite.

You need to worry about a disk failure, a fire and ransomware.

 

[skyactiv]

DVD is a format going extinct. Get a few quality USB-C thumb drives, back up your files as needed and keep them in a small fire chest or a safe. If your PC is up to date, opt for USB-C thumb drives.
You also have the cloud. Put your thumb drives in a small chest safe at the least.

 

[Andrew1972]

Is the 50GB a one time thing or persistent.

If one time backup to a external hard drive and also a USB thumb drive(s). Keep one somewhere else.

I used to pay a cloud storage company (Carbonite) but swapped over to a WD Cloud network drive $99 and some Amazon cloud storage(glacier) that I wrote some utilities to push data over to occasionally.

 

[SZR48207]

Tape drives still exist.

 

[MoneyJohn]

You can look at Amazon Cloud services. It is cheap but the retrieval of your data takes a lot of time. So if this data backup is for the rainy days, nothing beats cloud storage.

I have 3 copies of my data, 2 local and one at cousin's place.

 

[Silver]

Quantity is as important, or more so one could argue, as quality.

If it's critical:
An established online backup service, such as iDrive or Carbonite.
Two local backups. My choices are 1 HD and one quality flash drive.

If it's not critical, drop the paid online backup.

 

[HangFire]

Copy it onto fresh media every 5 years, sooner if it starts failing integrity checks.

 

[uc50ic4more]

3-2-1 rule. https://www.nakivo.com/blog/3-2-1-backup-rule-efficient-data-protection-strategy/

I back up to an external 3.5" HDD once or a few times a week, duplicate that drive to another once every month or so and keep the important stuff encrypted and backed up in two or three places in various clouds; one of which is a server under my control.

 

[Y_K]

if it's not a business, sync.com is it for me. in the event an asteroid hits, the civilization as we know it ends, but I somehow survive, I shall have other concerns.

 

[spackard]

M-DISC lasts a long time. Just need a writer capable of writing to M-DISC media.

 

[PandaBear]

Multiple hard drives, multiple locations.

The older hard drives (i.e. before the age of 1TB), tends to have better data retention if it has not been found to have bad designs. My most important family photos are stored on a Seagate 7200.7 (not the bad 7200.11), 120GB each, locked in a fire safe box at my parents' home. I have another 2 250-360GB WD Black storing the more recent backup at my home.

 

[ka9mnx]

Spinning rust. I would never keep data in the cloud. Especially something you don't want to loose. Solid state media deteriorates over time. Media (DVD and CD's) deteriorates over time. Metallic tape deteriorates over time (a long time). Old fashioned spinning drives last the longest if protected from heat, moisture and abuse. I did a lot of research on this when I wanted to back up my photo collection (I was once big in photography - film and digital). I keep absolutely nothing on my desktop and laptop drives. I work off a thumb drive which is backed up on spinning rust.

 

[ka9mnx]

Originally Posted by PandaBear
Multiple hard drives, multiple locations.

The older hard drives (i.e. before the age of 1TB), tends to have better data retention if it has not been found to have bad designs. My most important family photos are stored on a Seagate 7200.7 (not the bad 7200.11), 120GB each, locked in a fire safe box at my parents' home. I have another 2 250-360GB WD Black storing the more recent backup at my home.

Excellent post. Thanks for sharing...