Storage

[manmachine]

Do you back up your data to a hard drive or dvd media and which will last the longest?.

[direwolf-pgh]

DVD & CDR discs -- short shelf life/household clutter/landfill (100disc spindle = 470GB = $50ish)

1.5TB hard drive = $130.00 (and falling).. backup & store it away

online backup (unlimited) $50/yr
example: http://www.carbonite.com/how_it_works/

it seems DVD-R/CDR backup is the worse choice no matter how you slice it.
good question..Im sure we'll see a lot of thoughts on this one.

[daddyray]

I use dvds to play here and there and for portability n gifts. I have external HDs that I use purely for storage and those are backed up as well with yet other external drives...
I love the idea of online back up but worry that the companies that provide it will die off.

[U2Lynne]

Originally Posted by direwolf-pgh

it seems DVD-R/CDR backup is the worse choice no matter how you slice it.

Probably. However, that is still the method I am using. (DVD-R, not CD-R, although I have a ton of those, too!)

[dorrcoq]

Originally Posted by daddyrayoll

I love the idea of online back up but worry that the companies that provide it will die off.

I wondered about that, too. I wouldn't want that to be my only backup.

[daddyray]

didn't Kodak or someone recently say bye and too bad those files are gone? Someone who was so big at some point that one would never think they'd close up shop.
I tend to think of all the other traders as the ultimate back up..someone out there has gotta have it....

[Jerm]

I may have mentioned it in another thread, but it's only because I'm stoked to have gotten it...anyway, check out Drobo. It seems like a very well thought out solution to scalable storage. I got it with (4)-1.5TB drives. The cool thing is that you can mix/match brands, capacities, etc as long as they're SATA. No hassles like with a true RAID configuration. I talked to them extensively before buying it and if I fill the four drives I can remove them as a pack and insert 4 more. Plus you're still able to put the original pack back in to retrieve data when needed. It stripes the data across the drives in a way different from RAID, but still protecting the data from a single drive failure. It'll still work with only 2 drives in it, too so you only have to get drives as you need em...

Check it out... www.drobo.com

If you're in need of immediate storage for cheap, I've got a 2TB WD My Book Pro that has a RAID controller in it so you can go 1TB mirrored or 2TB. Shoot me a PM if you'd be interested...special price for TTD members!

[daddyray]

that's a lot of smart talk Jerm

[Jerm]

Originally Posted by daddyrayoll

that's a lot of smart talk Jerm

Oh no man, there are much bigger geeks on this site than me. Most of it's probably BS that I sold myself on after spending the money on the thing.
It's only been up and running since last weekend, so I can't comment yet on whether it's going to perform well, but so far so good.

[GRC]

Originally Posted by daddyrayoll

I tend to think of all the other traders as the ultimate back up..someone out there has gotta have it....

My thoughts exactly; not reliant on commercial interest, not reliant on profit margins.... just need to have 'enough' people out there interested enough to download.

[dude87]

I use internal hard drives, which I also back up. Someone mentioned the falling price of drives, Newegg was recently selling 1 TB Western Digital drives for $89 delivered.

Someone also mentioned fellow enthusiasts, and that's the best backup - massive parallel backups we like to call it

[chinajoe]

so which hard drive would be the best to use for long-term storing?

i try to burn several copies of every master in several formats (raw wav, flac)
before i transfer it to the hard drive. then which dvd would be the best to use for long term storage?

one can always store stuff on the original memory card, but how long
will it last?

[manmachine]

What do you do with the hard drive once it is full. Do you leave it connected to your machine or do you disconnect it and store it in a box?.

Does anyone know how long will data survive on a drive once it is full and turned off?.

[jamroom]

I burn the masters and if I have mastered a show, then I burn the flacs/md5/ffp/text file as well. This is all also on one of my hdds.

As mentioned by folks above, the best back up is other tapers / collectors. I can attest to this after having lost the flac sets of a dozen shows after hard drive problems (still had the raw masters). Either the shows were still online somewhere, or I asked a few folks to help out, and help out they did. I now have everything that I lost.

I am more strict with my back ups now (off to back up a show, as a new one to be recorded tonight...)

[direwolf-pgh]

Originally Posted by chinajoe

so which hard drive would be the best to use for long-term storing?

i try to burn several copies of every master in several formats (raw wav, flac)
before i transfer it to the hard drive. then which dvd would be the best to use for long term storage?

one can always store stuff on the original memory card, but how long
will it last?

all hard drives die - its just a matter of when.
why do you store in multiple formats? i dont get that one.
a billion people will tell you TY discs are the only way to go & people pay extra $$ for them. others swear by burn speeds (slower = better).
there are plenty of industry experts () that will tell you all burned discs suffer from the dye 'decomposing' - burned media looses its structure.

Originally Posted by manmachine

What do you do with the hard drive once it is full. Do you leave it connected to your machine or do you disconnect it and store it in a box?.

Does anyone know how long will data survive on a drive once it is full and turned off?.

if you disconnect a hard drive it has no reason to fail - but it still could (gremlins, sun spots, bad luck)
if there were a perfect solution we wouldn't be talking about it.

why I prefer hard drives:
I had a stack of hard drives with archive info from 1995 >2000.
these drives were 'super massive' 20GB/40GB drives.
purchased a $100 drive off the shelf > transfer of all drives only took a few hours > simplified archive.

lets say you have 1000 DVD-R/CDR discs.. and they are 5 - 8yrs old..what are you gonna do?
it would probably take less time to redownload your entire collection than to reburn them + dealing with CRC errors + media cost ..etc..etc.

if vladsmythe is reading this, I'd love to hear what he's going to do with his house of discs.. he would need a second lifetime to deal with his 10,000 cd-rs.

3TB and 6TB hard discs are right around the corner..entire collections can soon be archived to one drive & it will only get better.
Or as others have suggested - dont even try..if you lose it/download it again. pretty good advice, imo.

my morning 2¢ thoughts - everyone has to figure this problem out for themselves.