Data Rot prevention

[Tamesh16]

So since Linus mentioned running Cent OS which didnt have data scrubbing. 

I have a somewhat minimal but important SSD bank that just connects by USB but only use it to back up files and pictures. 

Do I need to worry about Data rot, because I have been using it for about 5 years with quite minimal use.

I only back up at the end of the year, with the current year being stored in the cloud but being off loaded to the drive usually at the start of the next year. 

I do have a copy on my computer and a more compressed format of the images on the cloud, but just wondering If I need to worry about Data rot with windows and if so is there some program to use to 'scrub' the data to prevent this

[wseaton]

Linus is calling it bit rot because he doesn't understand storage....well, at the time. Hes redacted this a bit in his most recent video.  If he did the problem wouldn't have occurred in the first place because the drives were failing a basic SMART scan. Ive had countless enterprise SANs blow through more drives but no data loss because I replaced them at the first sign of trouble. A SMART fault is enough for any reasonable manufacturer to consider the drive defective and replace it under warranty.

 

What happened is his spinning rust  drives incurred so many defective clusters it exceeded the parity correction threshold of his RAID. Modern file systems in conjunction with RAID offsets are smart enough to figure out that if data in cluster X has just been marked defective due to a likely surface defect that data in the corresponding mirror or parity cluster should replace it. If data is nerfed in both locations, and/or the RAID algorithm doesn't have a functional location to rebuild it the data is gone. Ive replaced ungodly amounts of bad drives in RAID arrays over the years and data corruption is very, very rare if you catch the problem soon enough. 

 

The link wheriamnow posted is in regards to a 7+ year old SSD. First tip is not to use 7+ year old SSDs. Next tip is to avoid really cheap SSDs. Next tip is periodically SMART check your SSD with whatever maintenance software it has. Next tip is to keep your PC on a UPS to avoid hard power faults which can hurt consumer SSDs. Data center grade SSDs have better protection against this. Note that Chia miners are using retired data center grade SSDs and still can't kill them. So, the issue is with really cheap consumer SSDs. 

[Tamesh16]

12 hours ago, wseaton said:

So, the issue is with really cheap consumer SSDs. 

What about Hard drives, because my secondary back up is on quite an old drive which I use very rarely to back up. 

as a magnetic medium I assume its more prone to data rot than an SSD but my SSDs are good Samsung 850 or 970 evos so I think those are good .

[Mark Kaine]

22 hours ago, wseaton said:

First tip is not to use 7+ year old SSDs

No... nope. Nothing wrong with my 7+ yo Samsung Evo 850

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

10 hours ago, Tamesh16 said:

as a magnetic medium I assume its more prone to data rot than an SSD but my SSDs are good Samsung 850 or 970 evos so I think those are good .

On the contrary, for example magneto optical is amongst the most stable reliable data storage medium, good old "tapes" as well, its why its still used in big data centers etc.

 

i think what you describe as "data rot" isnt really a thing, you're supposed to check for errors regularly and if there is anything wrong change to a new storage medium (asap)

 

"data rot" occurs more due to hard faults in the OS, unreliable memory ("gaming RAM") etc.

 

As for actual harddrives, theyre simply not adequate for long time storage, too much can go wrong especially in storage conditions (humidity etc)

 

On 2/6/2022 at 4:05 AM, Tamesh16 said:

cloud

the least reliable long time storage solution…

 

what if the service shuts down, what if the provider thinks your "christmas with girlfriend" videos are copyright infringement and deletes them, etc…  ?

Sure its an option, but extremely unreliable, realistically.

 

[Blue4130]

3 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

No... nope. Nothing wrong with my 7+ yo Samsung Evo 850

 

 

267 days of power on, it's just a baby still. 

[Mark Kaine]

28 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

267 days of power on, it's just a baby still

a 7 yo baby tho!

 

it was in my ps3 most of the time tbh, which saw heavy daily use for years, Im not sure how accurate these stats are therefore.

[ho72]

4 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

No... nope. Nothing wrong with my 7+ yo Samsung Evo 850

 

You should upgrade to the latest version of CDI (8.x). When I did, all but the newest SSD in my system fell below 100% health status.

[Mark Kaine]

7 minutes ago, ho72 said:

You should upgrade to the latest version of CDI (8.x). When I did, all but the newest SSD in my system fell below 100% health status.

Thank you, but that sounds like a downgrade. : D

 

Actually I guess im aware this isnt accurate (but i thought  thats what anyone is using anyway) i didn't think newer versions would possibly fix this… however, it actually says my only 1 year old mx500 is only at 96%… which seems realistic, but all my samsung evos it says 100%

 

Might actually try a newer version  since theyre standalone it shouldn't be a big deal, and I can always go back to the "nicer" version. : p

 

[Tamesh16]

14 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

the least reliable long time storage solution…

 

what if the service shuts down, what if the provider thinks your "christmas with girlfriend" videos are copyright infringement and deletes them, etc…  ?

Sure its an option, but extremely unreliable, realistically.

 

I have two back ups, on Google Drive and One drive. 

I have been Using Google drive since early 2012 so about 10 years, and only recently had copy right been a thing. 

Its not something I considered 10 years ago but still a decent point. However I don't think either one is disappearing soon.