Storage

[WoodPeckr]

Fuck, here I listen to all you guys telling me that I should not use USB memory sticks for backup, and I buy a portable drive. DO I have to go back to backing everything on cd's?

LOL!
I used to back up data on CDs because salesmen told me that media would last 100 years. Well after 5 yrs those data CDs which were all stored as recommended, became corrupt somehow and would not open anymore! Now I store all important data on 3 HDDs.

 

[splooge]

Yeah, i found cd's and dvd's don't last reliably, but I have yet to lose data on an external HDD. I have 3x1tb hdd's and with a HD video camera, the editied projects takes up most of the space.

 

[onthebottom]

Not sure I understand what you mean by how I'm going to use it...? Storage.

There are different considerations (speed of the drive and connection) depending on use, if you're working with large video files you might want to consider something faster, if you're storing document, photos.... the above may be fine.

OTB

 

[oldjones]

LOL!
I used to back up data on CDs because salesmen told me that media would last 100 years. Well after 5 yrs those data CDs which were all stored as recommended, became corrupt somehow and would not open anymore! Now I store all important data on 3 HDDs.

Did the salesman tell you those CDs had been use-tested for a century? It's all a guessing game kids. And the next question is how long before the moving parts in those HDDs don't anymore, and no one can rebuild them? Or how you'll get the data outta that SSD when you can't find anything to plug it in with/to?

The only permanent storage comes from rewriting the records, which is why we can still read Homer and Gilgamesh.

 

[WoodPeckr]

And the next question is how long before the moving parts in those HDDs don't anymore, and no one can rebuild them? Or how you'll get the data outta that SSD when you can't find anything to plug it in with/to?

That's why they go on 3 drives now for backup. If one fails, you buy a new one. Agree that over time new types of storage will emerge and be incompatible with HDDs. In this case you have to transfer data from old HDDs to the new media format whatever that may be and move on. There will always be some adapter connectors to make this possible because plugs are always changing.

 

[oldjones]

Yup, that's why I keep that old Edison wax cylinder player, along with the Super eight projector, my Stereo-Realist camera, and the cassette and reel-to-reel recorders. Because there'll always be adapters; they're called transcription services. Actually the Edison bit was a joke, but I have all the other stuff. The folks at CBC archives tell me the oxide will likely come off all the tapes next time I play them, so it better be to make that transcription. The VHSs of my movie oeuvre have a little while longer to go, but the actual films are getting iffy, and my buddy with the collection of 16mms is now collecting projector bulbs and drive belts.

When I was in library school we learned there's all sorts of specs and standards for safe storage, but the only proven one is lots of copies and lots of users. No one intended the lost plays of Shakespeare to disappear. Or for the last guy who could read and write Sumerian to die before he adapted everything to ….

 

[Rockslinger]

I still have some 80 year old black and white Kodak prints of my ancestors. Looks like they will still be good for at least another 80 years so future generations of Rockslingers will have a pictorial image of their forebearers.

 

[oldjones]

You're very fortunate, and the little Slingers even more so.Just don't leave 'em in a sunny spot. Or mount them with glue. Or press them between pages that aren't archivally acid-free. But they likely will last longer than that a copy on a CD. We know that because we've seen paper prints last that long since the XIXth C. The oldest CDs around are younger than lotsa the people telling you how permanent they are.

Meantime we're losing all sorts of printed stuff from the late 1800s and well into the 1900s—lots and lots of newspapers, magazines and bestsellers, because the more copies they printed the cheaper they made the paper and it's all full of acid—unlike those precious one-off pix—and darkening and crumbling away. Except for the bits that caught enough interest to be reprinted and quoted.

 

[onthebottom]

Yup, that's why I keep that old Edison wax cylinder player, along with the Super eight projector, my Stereo-Realist camera, and the cassette and reel-to-reel recorders. Because there'll always be adapters; they're called transcription services. Actually the Edison bit was a joke, but I have all the other stuff. The folks at CBC archives tell me the oxide will likely come off all the tapes next time I play them, so it better be to make that transcription. The VHSs of my movie oeuvre have a little while longer to go, but the actual films are getting iffy, and my buddy with the collection of 16mms is now collecting projector bulbs and drive belts.

When I was in library school we learned there's all sorts of specs and standards for safe storage, but the only proven one is lots of copies and lots of users. No one intended the lost plays of Shakespeare to disappear. Or for the last guy who could read and write Sumerian to die before he adapted everything to ….

Library school?

OTB

 

[WoodPeckr]

You are the right track. Buy a second portable drive and make sure you keep both your original and your new one current (duplicated) so that if either fails you have a window of opportunity to replace it with a new unit and return to having dual drive protection.

This is the best advice till the next 'better and greatest' storage medium comes along.