Archival HDD - Long Term Storage Suggestion?

[PCn00b3000]

It's been a while since I last been on here, but I'm glad to be back!

I've saved ALL phone/laptop/PC data that I've accumulated over the past 9 years or so, going from various hard drives to cloud services and such along the way. I'm at about 659GB of total data in the cluster of folders and files, and I'm wondering if there's a better option to hold data in a strictly archival setting. I won't be connecting the device unless a backup is being made or a transfer or new files to be added. 

Are there safe and reliable hard drive versions that won't die on me and lose all my data? I'm getting kind of tired having devices die on me, and I can't risk losing it on a cloud service if I miss a payment. The price of the HDD can range anywhere: I don't care, I just need my data to be safe. This data means a lot to me, but that goes without saying. I'd appreciate any guidance on this!

[Wh0_Am_1]

The best solution would probably to get multiple archival drives and set them up in a RAID array, which splits the data up amongst all the involved drives, this both increases the rate of transfer, and the stability of the data so that even if multiple drives fail (depending on how many drives are involved), the data can still be recovered through a set of mathematical calculations. (do note this does not work on high speed RAID 0 arrays) P.S. you could also setup multiple RAID arrays

[emosun]

best way to combat reliability.... is redundancy

buy several 1tb hdds and copy the data you have to all of them and split them up in various locations. one at a friends house , one at a relatives , one in a lockbox at a bank perhaps.

drive choice is FAR less critical if you have lots of them

[PCn00b3000]

2 minutes ago, emosun said:

best way to combat reliability.... is redundancy

but several 1tb hdds and copy the data you have to all of them and split them up in various locations. one at a friends house , one at a relatives , one in a lockbox at a bank perhaps.

drive choice is FAR less critical if you have lots of them

That's an awesome idea; not sure why I didn't think of that before!  Many thanks!

[Wh0_Am_1]

 

[PCn00b3000]

3 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

The best solution would probably to get multiple archival drives and set them up in a RAID array, which splits the data up amongst all the involved drives, this both increases the rate of transfer, but also increases the stability of the data so that even if multiple drives fail (depending on how many drives are involved), the data can still be recovered through a set of mathematical calculations. (do note this does not work on high speed RAID 0 arrays)

I've considered using a RAID array for the active archives then cloning that to other various drives that would be placed off site. Luckily, speed isn't a huge deal to me with something like an archive drive or array 

[Wh0_Am_1]

2 minutes ago, PCn00b3000 said:

I've considered using a RAID array for the active archives then cloning that to other various drives that would be placed off site. Luckily, speed isn't a huge deal to me with something like an archive drive or array 

Then Raid 1 might be your answer, watch the video. Then again it may just be better to have a ton of cheap drives.