new HDD quwationa

[the snake]

bought a few new 4TB drives to store movies and documents, ect and was wondering a few things

(1) what should i do to make sure the drives are in good condition ?

(2) what is a good free way to verify the data on the drives say once every few months ?

(3) what is a good free program to make a file list of files on each drive ?

(4) can i store on copy in a banks safe deposit box and not worry about EMI damage, ect ?

 

[Deleted member 126051]

4: Yes. You can store a drive in a safe deposit box. I'd keep a few anti-static bags available.

That should keep you safe from small, accidental static zaps.

As for large scale EMP-style bursts. If you're within range of such a pulse, you're pretty much fucked unless you're in a really REALLY good, grounded faraday cage.

 

[HammerSandwich]

How will you use these? In an array? Rotating them as off-site backups? Etc.

 

[the snake]

How will you use these? In an array? Rotating them as off-site backups? Etc.

no raid, just single drives and rotate them, yes

plugged occasianly into a extrenal dock to add files

 

[AlienTech]

NOT moving the drive makes it far more reliable. Keep them fixed like in a removable tray. When they get filled, remove it and put it in a safe. Moving the drive makes chance of accidents and problems go up a lot and is one of the main reasons for drive failure. I know more drives do not have G sence smart updating, But drives like Toshiba do and they go up each time the desktop case is moved. Showing that the drive does notice even moderate movements that affect it. It is also why external backup drives are les reliable than internal desktop drives. I know people move drives around for backups and such and even I do it.. But I also learnt, its the single most frequent point of drive failure and also the main problem in creating problems for the drive such as read errors and reallocated sector counts.

Connect the drive internally but put it to sleep when not backing up. Programs like HD sleep and HDDscan will let you hibernate the drive without having to handle the drive every day. If reliability is what you are after.

 

[HammerSandwich]

(1) Verify regularly & watch SMART. You're already set for multiple backups, so you should be fine.

(2) I'm more comfortable with a ZFS server for this (& it's a lot easier once set up), but anything that lets you initially create hashes then verify them later should work. List here. MS's FCIV might be a good starting point.

(3) For some other reason? FCIV stores a database of files with hashes, so it could meet this need too.

 

[HammerSandwich]

Connect the drive internally but put it to sleep when not backing up. Programs like HD sleep and HDDscan will let you hibernate the drive without having to handle the drive every day. If reliability is what you are after.

I disagree, because a number of problems can destroy a connected backup drive. Think lightning, Cryptolocker, whatever.

Don't move the drive while it's running (duh!), handle it gently, but get it offsite.

 

[Deleted member 126051]

Best solution for backing up is to take a layered approach.

Don't just rely on local backups.
Or offsite backups.
Or online backups.

Come up with a plan that takes advantage of all three if you can.

This way, depending on how catastrophic a crash becomes, you have multiple layers of backup to choose from. Rather than a backup of X-days' age, going "Shit, this is all we've got! Hope everything's there!"

 

[AlienTech]

I disagree, because a number of problems can destroy a connected backup drive. Think lightning, Cryptolocker, whatever.

Don't move the drive while it's running (duh!), handle it gently, but get it offsite.

Oh sure drives might get damaged in a flood, the building might collapse and more frequent, it might drop off the desk.. But off the 50 or so drives that I have lost, Half were lost on power up. The others developed errors and had to be retired. So I can only go from my own experience. I do have 1 drive that has over 30,000 relocated sectors on it that was a working drive and it still works and used as a spare and a couple of others that also developed errors and retired. But considering I lost a lot more drives that were used for backup than for the system, I take moving the drives and its associated problems as more of a factor than anything else. I even had a lightning strike that took out the network port and the modem and another that shut off the power when it hit just outside the house. My mother board also lets me eject drives so all can be made removable so something infecting them are reduced even if connected since they are not powered up. And just because something is powered down does not mean they wont develop problems. You dont need to drop them or hit them. static electricity is as dangerous as lightning and so is coffee, the baby, the cat and over eager friends.