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Started By
Message
Questions about Longer-Term Storage (drives)
Posted on 4/21/20 at 10:37 am
Posted on 4/21/20 at 10:37 am
I do a fair amount of photography and my raw files are starting to fill up drives. This is all personal/family stuff so no real business interest, so it's not worth any big investment to retain/safeguard.
Right now I'm keeping photos on an external SSD which is backed up to a separate external drive (HDD). But over the next year I imagine I'll max those out. I envision buying more storage and then just putting one/both of my current drives somewhere safe, firing them up every year or two until they get copied onto something else or I just don't care too much anymore.
Should those drives last in storage for 10 years or so until I copy them to something else or the data can be lost without any real issue? I'm not terribly interested in having some enclosure in my home office if it can be avoided. Ideally, I'd just keep redundant copies on large HDDs in storage (cheaper and bigger, thereby freeing up my SSDs) - would that be a reasonably safe way to go?
Right now I'm keeping photos on an external SSD which is backed up to a separate external drive (HDD). But over the next year I imagine I'll max those out. I envision buying more storage and then just putting one/both of my current drives somewhere safe, firing them up every year or two until they get copied onto something else or I just don't care too much anymore.
Should those drives last in storage for 10 years or so until I copy them to something else or the data can be lost without any real issue? I'm not terribly interested in having some enclosure in my home office if it can be avoided. Ideally, I'd just keep redundant copies on large HDDs in storage (cheaper and bigger, thereby freeing up my SSDs) - would that be a reasonably safe way to go?
2
Posted on 4/21/20 at 10:58 am to Pettifogger
see the other thread on here.
i just paid to convert all of my Hi8 and D8 tapes to digital. my strategy is as follows:
* upload everything to google cloud (free unlimited for video and up to 12mp for photos)
* store DVDs with the videos and hard drive with videos mp4s in my office filing cabinet
* keep the original tapes.
this gives me access to everything anytime i want and at least 2 redundant local backups.
i think you may want to burn hard-copy disks as well as the HD because your HD may not be easy to access in 10 years. see: zip and jaz disks, SCSI drives, etc etc.
in short, burn cheap disks with the files as well as a 'living' hard drive.
i just paid to convert all of my Hi8 and D8 tapes to digital. my strategy is as follows:
* upload everything to google cloud (free unlimited for video and up to 12mp for photos)
* store DVDs with the videos and hard drive with videos mp4s in my office filing cabinet
* keep the original tapes.
this gives me access to everything anytime i want and at least 2 redundant local backups.
i think you may want to burn hard-copy disks as well as the HD because your HD may not be easy to access in 10 years. see: zip and jaz disks, SCSI drives, etc etc.
in short, burn cheap disks with the files as well as a 'living' hard drive.
This post was edited on 4/21/20 at 11:00 am
Posted on 4/21/20 at 11:50 am to Pettifogger
quote:Probably, but I wouldn't trust them. There are several things that can go wrong and either corrupt data or make them unreadable. First, data is stored in magnetic fields, which degrade over time. 10 years is probably not long enough to make any real difference, but I believe there is a decent chance that at least some files would be corrupted. Second is the fact that HDDs are mechanical, and like every machine they tend to seize up if not used for long periods. Lubricants dry up, parts stick to each other, etc.
Should those drives last in storage for 10 years or so
But if you fire them up every year or two and write new copies like you mentioned, you should be fine.
Honestly, though, archive management is a real pain, and you might want to look into cloud storage options. Amazon AWS has a "cold storage" option called Glacier for about $1 per TB/month. Also, Backblaze has an unlimited data storage plan for $60/year. I probably wouldn't trust a 3rd party service to be around forever, but it might give you some peace of mind vs. trying to manage all of the data locally. It doesn't matter how many copies you make, if they're all in the same physical location, one disaster can take them all out.
Posted on 4/21/20 at 11:57 am to Korkstand
quote:
It doesn't matter how many copies you make, if they're all in the same physical location, one disaster can take them all out.
good point. i should probably offload a copy of the DVD media to a family member's house or something.
Posted on 4/21/20 at 12:07 pm to Korkstand
Thanks to you both. I've always assumed it would be a PITA to use a cloud service for that much personal data, but I guess it's really not anymore. I just uploaded about 100gb to OneDrive and it didn't take as long as I thought.
So maybe HDD+cloud+possible optical copy would be a solid (if not enterprise-level/foolproof) way to go? Seems like 1 physical+1 cloud backup for my old photos is fairly decent, especially if I periodically upgrade my archive drives as time/tech advances.
For current year stuff I'll likely keep doing what I'm doing (SSD+HDD) and periodically do a cloud backup too, so there should be an extra redundant backup for that stuff.
Related (probably dumb) question - am I putting my plan at risk by having both of my "current" drives (SSD and HDD) connected to my desktop at all times? As in - what's the likelihood of a problem impairing both drives (and potentially wiping out main storage+backup)?
So maybe HDD+cloud+possible optical copy would be a solid (if not enterprise-level/foolproof) way to go? Seems like 1 physical+1 cloud backup for my old photos is fairly decent, especially if I periodically upgrade my archive drives as time/tech advances.
For current year stuff I'll likely keep doing what I'm doing (SSD+HDD) and periodically do a cloud backup too, so there should be an extra redundant backup for that stuff.
Related (probably dumb) question - am I putting my plan at risk by having both of my "current" drives (SSD and HDD) connected to my desktop at all times? As in - what's the likelihood of a problem impairing both drives (and potentially wiping out main storage+backup)?
Posted on 4/21/20 at 12:24 pm to Pettifogger
quote:
Thanks to you both. I've always assumed it would be a PITA to use a cloud service for that much personal data, but I guess it's really not anymore. I just uploaded about 100gb to OneDrive and it didn't take as long as I thought.
i have about 100 hours of video that i'm going to upload to google photos in the next few days when it arrives so i'll let you know the total size and how long it took to push to the cloud.
good timing w/ the comcast data cap bullshite turned off for the moment. its been nice grabbing entire collections of movies (james bond) and tv series without killing my data cap on a single download.
the james bond collection was 1TB so one click and i would have killed my data for the entire month.
Posted on 4/21/20 at 9:06 pm to CAD703X
quote:
its been nice grabbing entire collections of movies (james bond) and tv series without killing my data cap on a single download
Uh low key where you go to do that? Low key low key
Posted on 4/22/20 at 1:14 am to CajunTiger_225
want an invite?Posted on 4/23/20 at 3:46 am to CAD703X
Yes. Please. Yes I do.
Pinky promise Im not a narc.
Pinky promise Im not a narc.
Posted on 4/23/20 at 12:16 pm to CAD703X
I started doing youtube videos of our bee work. It's nice to have the videos to go through when you go back into a bee yard and can't remember how each hive was 30 days ago. So I want to keep all my footage.
Also of course trying to make a channel mostly because I wanted to learn how to edit videos and make them interesting. (or so I think interesting). Most of the footage doesn't make it into the videos. So what I started doing is combining all my clips into 1 video at 720p (good enough to watch for archive purposes) and upload it to my channel and just keep it private.
I know I'm putting a LOT in the hands of the youtube gods and should be paying for cloud storage, but atm, it's working for what I need it for. I know google is evil, but it's an easy to use best chance of being around forever evil.
Also of course trying to make a channel mostly because I wanted to learn how to edit videos and make them interesting. (or so I think interesting). Most of the footage doesn't make it into the videos. So what I started doing is combining all my clips into 1 video at 720p (good enough to watch for archive purposes) and upload it to my channel and just keep it private.
I know I'm putting a LOT in the hands of the youtube gods and should be paying for cloud storage, but atm, it's working for what I need it for. I know google is evil, but it's an easy to use best chance of being around forever evil.
Posted on 4/23/20 at 12:17 pm to CajunTiger_225
Post a throw away email address on here to use for your account
Posted on 4/23/20 at 4:42 pm to drdoct
I'd be very cautious about the YouTube route. All it takes is one person to report a complaint about one of your videos for YouTube to pull the plug on your account. Unlikely to happen based on what you're describing, but we are all targets on the internet. It would be a shame to lose your footage in that manner.
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