17 Jan
2023
17 Jan
'23
4:26 p.m.
Why wouldbyou need a whole server? Several 2.5" usb hard drives is all you meed.
On Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 10:59:08 AM EST, Kenneth Gober via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 9:48 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
LTO tape, properly stored, is advertised as having a 30 year lifetime. Of
course tape isn't particularly convenient for ad-hoc access so my archival
strategy is to dump things to a file server with a *lot* of disk space
(RAID1 or RAID10, not RAID0 or RAID4/RAID5), then regularly back up that
server to LTO tape. The current generation (LTO8) is very expensive so I
use LTO4 and LTO6 tapes which are comparatively very affordable. The data
doesn't tend to change but taking repeated backups anyway helps to ensure
that silent bit-rot on the hard disks is detected early enough to be
correctible. Having backups on tape also has the advantage that the tapes
are easily moved off-site, so a fire or other such disaster won't take out
my server and my backups both at once.
There is another significant advantage to focusing on a backup strategy as
opposed to an archival strategy -- I don't need to worry about tapes I made
today being readable decades in the future (i.e. I don't need to worry
about keeping legacy tape drives running). The file server is the
"archive" and I only *need* to be able to read the tapes I made last year
or last month. If a tape drive fails I can just get another one, and if
they become hard to get there's nothing stopping me from upgrading to
something newer with better availability (i.e. I don't have a library of
old media that I need to be able to read forever). The disadvantage of
course is that a file server isn't something you can reasonably put in
storage for future generations to access. This strategy really only works
if the file server is accessed frequently so that
accessibility/compatibility issues can be fixed incrementally as they
happen (while they are still easily addressed using current/recent
technology).
-ken
What about
M-DISC DVDs and BluRays? Archival grade, not susceptible
to magnetism or EMP. I think BluRay discs are made of a harder material
than DVDs and don’t scratch as easily.
I have had magnetic, AND optical media that have "gone bad".
I am interested in whatever media are more likely to still be readable in
a few decades.