Hard drive better than DVD-R for one time permanent backup?

I recently migrated from a desktop to a laptop, my old system has a lot of data I don't really need but also want to keep. I might want to pull some out at some point and others I don't think I ever will but also want to have in case I do.

Would backing it up about 18GB so I could buy a single HDD or use a few DVDs. My main concern is the data integrity, I know optical media is not the most reliable so I am thinking a HDD stored away in a fire proof safe would be better, what do you think?

For the cost of the media, why not do both?

Like valve1138 said, use both. HDDs are great for archiving stuff - they are quite reliable (especially if you setup RAID), price per GB is relatively low these days, and you have fast access to your data.

Depending on your needs, amount of data you'll need to archive and your budget, you could even set up some external HDD archive.

Take a look at some of the external cases here:

Raidsonic eSATA enclosures

and here:

Raidsonic eSATA RAID enclosures

You can add disk to system like that, and disk are hot swapable too. If you decide for something like this, be sure to buy models with eSATA interface, since that way you can achieve transfer speeds just like with the ordinary internal disks. eSATA will be standard soon, and eSATA controlers and PCMCIA adapters are available, plus some new motherboards (Asus namely) come with eSATA ports already.

If you set up RAID based archive system your data will be safer (if one disk fails you can just take it out and place new disk in, without any loss of data - although not all RAIDs are same, but I won't go into details here).

You could also use NAS (Network Attached Storage) system, or you could build your own, based on some old PC you might have around - just fill it with hard drives, RAID controller, put it in your basement or closet, and connect to your network. That way you'll haver central storage server, and all your files will be at your fingertips at every moment.

There are many options for storage / archive setups, you just have to decide what suits your needs. Our storage needs grow, media files are bigger and bigger, and good storage solutions are getting more important every day.

If systems like that are too mucf for your needs, just add more internal disk to your system, and as time goes decide if you need separate storage system.

Anyway, best practice would be to keep most important data on both DVDs and hard disks, just in case, and rest of the files on RAID arranged disks.

Originally Posted by SnowPunk98

I recently migrated from a desktop to a laptop, my old system has a lot of data I don't really need but also want to keep. I might want to pull some out at some point and others I don't think I ever will but also want to have in case I do.

Would backing it up about 18GB so I could buy a single HDD or use a few DVDs. My main concern is the data integrity, I know optical media is not the most reliable so I am thinking a HDD stored away in a fire proof safe would be better, what do you think?

Hard drives can still die. Media would be a safer bet to store data.

Use a hard drive but then power it down and leave it.

Use optical disks for closet storage and long term data archiving.


So yes, do both. Drives are much easier to manage and search, DVD-R's are much more tedious but offers a great last line of defense for backups.