Thumb drives vs Hard drives..

modi123

modi123

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 6, 2006
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I have been looking for an option on long term archiving storage.

I am looking to back up files that do not change much (family photos, insurance photos, old docs, etc) and storing on a shelf in the closet or in a safety deposit box.

The question is do I use an external hard drive or a ring of thumb drives? I didn't see any particular link on google (or www.cuil.com - lol) that would indicate how long a hard drive data says uncorrupted (if rarely used) versus a thumb drive (life span?). I would also like to avoid using CDs (I don't want to have hundreds of discs to lug around when I move), but if that is the better option than either of the first two I might go there.
 
I don't have a blue ray burner nor actually want to drop that much cash on one.
 
I'd go with a decent, external HDD. If you store it well, it should last a long long time.
 
DeaconFrost said:
I'd go with a decent, external HDD. If you store it well, it should last a long long time.
Click to expand...

Thanks DeaconFrost. I have a 40 gig hard drive that is in 'yellow' status with S.M.A.R.T. statusing.. but I have a second 40 giger that's hasn't been used in a while and I'll probably use that.

The data charge on drives don't disappate over time, do they? If it's dumped in an external drive case in an anti static bag at normal temperatures they should be okay for quite some time, right?
 
modi123 said:
Thanks DeaconFrost. I have a 40 gig hard drive that is in 'yellow' status with S.M.A.R.T. statusing.. but I have a second 40 giger that's hasn't been used in a while and I'll probably use that.

The data charge on drives don't disappate over time, do they? If it's dumped in an external drive case in an anti static bag at normal temperatures they should be okay for quite some time, right?
Click to expand...

"Data charge" doesnt dissipate. a harddrive will have its contents on it until it is magentically altered. antistatic bag at normal temperatures (plus one of those dessicant silica gel paks) and the drive should last for years, if not longer.
 
It depends on how much data you want to backup. I'd always recommend mature optical media, which can last up to decades. Considering you're backing up mostly images and documents, DVD5 should be sufficient. RAR the files and include recovery records (5% should be plenty) before burning them onto quality media such as Taiyo Yuden. Store them in cases vertically in your secure deposit box, and add some dessicants.

If you have more data, it would probably be easier to dump them onto a hard disk with some parity and securely storing it. But if you can store your data on a ring of NAND flash drives, I'm sure you can burn half a dozen of DVDs.
 
I've heard thumbdrives/flash should hold data for 10 years fairly reliably from what most manufacturers claim, but nobody has really tested this that I'm aware of. Hard drives can hold data for long periods, but you have to consider being more mechanical and being complex in nature, they can, and will, die at some point in their life, many times without warning.

I use DVD's for long term archiving. I use only high quality Taiyo Yuden discs, burned slowly, with NO label or marker on the disc. They're stored in Tyvek sleeves, in a case with silica bags inside a safe deposit box.

The best one can do is make multiple copies of valuable data and keep them in seperate safe locations for longevity and hope for the best.
 
Mkay. Thumbdrives are out. Hell, I don't even have a DVD burner (damn cd burner love!). I think I might roll the hard drive + silica bags + antistatic bag. I have the drive, and the minimal activity should be okay. Then again if I determine what I need to save is enough for a cd then I'll end up doing that. Heck, maybe both.
 
I wouldnt trust a HDD....I had an 80gb sata drive that I took out of one of my system(working when I took it out) put it in a antistatic bag.

2 years later I started to build a fileserver for my house i put it in and it would not even spin up. So If I have something that I want to save for a long time its either DVD's or BluRay depending on Size. Thumb drives are okay but im just not sure if they can be trusted.
 
You can get a very nice SATA burner for under $30, and a stack of high quality DVDs for the same price.
 
DeaconFrost said:
You can get a very nice SATA burner for under $30, and a stack of high quality DVDs for the same price.
Click to expand...

whats your opinion of the taiyo yudens (i might have totally misspelled that) i hear theyre supposed to be near the best bang for the buck dvd-r wise
 
I see everyone recommend them, and I'm sure they are a great product, but I usually just buy Verbatim's whenever my local MicroCenter has them on sale. As long as you are buying a name brand disc, you should be fine.
 
depending on how much your data is worth could help justify purchasing extra equipment. I'd recommend maybe trying multiple methods, such as a DVD+R (or blu-ray) AND a HD in a safe deposit box, and maybe a usb-flash drive as well. Be sure to update them, and test them as often as you see reasonable. If something is important, one copy is just not enough.

Everyday, as you leave your computer, think to yourself "how much hurt would I be in if I lost any of this".
 
You can also consider a LTO Tape drive. The newest generation would be way too expensive, but I got a LTO-1 drive for 130€ at ebay one year ago. A LTO-1 Tape carries 100 GB (uncompressed) and costs about 5 € used on ebay, if you're lucky. Original packaged can be about 15€. LTO-2 carries 200 GB per tape but I don't know the prices there.
Magnetic Tape may sound outdated but in fact it's still the archival medium No.1 and it can be still readable in 30 years.
But it takes 2 hours to write or copy a full tape to disk, so I use it only for copies. But I'm sure it pays out when I put them out of the locker one day and discover my past that played in front of the screen ;)
By the way the driver support for tape drives is excellent in Windows and you can use the internal NTBackup.
 
Seconding the tape drives, there's got to be a reason that they're still IT guy's first choice!
 
What about Jungle Disk using Amazon S2?
You mentioned you had 40gb drives...but I didnt see how much backup storage you needed...Jungle/Amazon is .15c per GB per month
 
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