Best way to store small amounts of data for a long time?

[Milk]

What would be the best way to store, lets say 100GB of data for a long time; for 5-10 years maybe?

SSD?

Hard Drives?

Compact Disc?

Cloud Storage?

 

I want to store my music library and some pictures.

 

 

[Clyne]

I would say Compact Disc, and External hard drive, something might happen in the cloud that could delete your data.

[Captain_Slow]

compact disc, especially M-Disk

[failblox]

I'd say a hard drive, but if you could get your hands on a USB that size it would be even better IMO cause the USB would take up much less room and be less fragile than the hard drive.

[loccilucas]

What would be the best way to store, lets say 100GB of data for a long time; for 5-10 years maybe?

SSD?

Hard Drives?

Compact Disc?

Cloud Storage?

 

I want to store my music library and some pictures.

If you arn't gonna touch them, probably CD's, because apparently when not used for long periods of time(10 years) SSD's will start to loose their data.

Hard drives would be good, but you don't wanna risk them breaking.

There is no way I would trust cloud storage for 10 years.

[Enderman]

I'd say a hard drive, but if you could get your hands on a USB that size it would be even better IMO cause the USB would take up much less room and be less fragile than the hard drive.

USB is bad for long term storage because it is digital.

[Snickerzz]

i would say a usb drive, or if the data can be split up, a couple of blurays

[Toddwjp]

get several potable harddrives and create more then one copy of the data

[Shroomster]

Use the Linus patented way of archiving HDDs and go that route.

[79wjd]

CF cards. Thats how a lot of photographers store their photos. 

[failblox]

USB is bad for long term storage because it is digital.

I'm sorry I don't really understand - but wouldn't digital be better cause CDs/DVDs/BluRays could get scratched?

[Manny Calavera]

Disc drives will last forever. 

[failblox]

Use the Linus patented way of archiving HDDs and go that route.

"Do as I say, not as I do"

~Linus Sebastian

[Enderman]

I'm sorry I don't really understand - but wouldn't digital be better cause CDs/DVDs/BluRays could get scratched?

Not really. Data on disk drivers is physically burned onto them, and will last much longer. Also disks were developed to continue working even when scratched, which is why you can have a ton of scratches on a CD but it will work perfectly fine.

On digital media like a USB drive, the data is written in 0s and 1s to a chip, but these bits can become corrupted (switching sates) over long periods of time resulting in the data being unreadable.

[failblox]

Not really. Data on dick drivers is physically burned onto them, and will last much longer. Also disks were developed to continue working even when scratched, which is why you can have a ton of scratches on a CD but it will work perfectly fine.

On digital media like a USB drive, the data is written in 0s and 1s to a chip, but these bits can become corrupted (switching sates) over long periods of time resulting in the data being unreadable.

Hmm I see. Thanks for the answer, but I think you meant 'disks' not 'dicks' lol

[Enderman]

Hmm I see. Thanks for the answer, but I think you meant 'disks' not 'dicks' lol

Oh shit. Thanks for telling me lol

[madcow]

If you're looking for something cloud based Amazon Glacier might be a good option. $0.01 per GB per month so cheap if you stay around a few hundred GB.

 

http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/

[Captain_WD]

Hey,

 

Out of these 4 options, I'd choose CDs (or DVD or Blu-Ray) or HDDs. Unlike SSD or USB, actual platters store information via magnetic recording rather than electrical impulses which can "die" after some time. Magnetic recording tends to last a lot more than electric impulses.

I would say Discs are better than HDDs because after some time, formatting or something else might fail in the Hard Drive (we are talking about years of no usage), while CDs (in my personal opinion) would last much more. The only drawback would be that CDs hold A LOT less information and you'd need to have a lot of them.

I would also recommend that you create multiple copies in case something happens to your backup (physical damage, loss, etc.).

 

Hope this helps,

 

Captain_WD.   

[dalekphalm]

As others have said, M-Disc is pretty much your best option for cheap long term storage. You could look at other kinds of "Archival Grade" DVD-R's, but M-Disc is pretty much the best one now.

 

HDD's are a bad choice because even just sitting there, they might not function when you turn them back on 10 years from now, not to mention if you accidentally bump or drop it, you might be screwed.

 

USB drives (And other flash based media) is a very bad idea, because of bit rot. Due to the way that technology is designed, they are susceptible to bit flipping over long periods. That's where a bit inside the flash chip unintentionally flips its state (from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0), which causes data corruption, and therefore data loss.

 

Cloud storage is a HUGE NO because you have no idea what will happen in 10 years. The data center could burn down. They could go out of business. A disgruntled employee could format the HDD your stuff was on, etc. There are just too many unknown variables.

 

Tape drive backup would be good but it's not cheap. The tapes themselves are dirt cheap and super reliable, but the drives can cost $2500+, so your initial setup cost is very high.

 

Regular CD's and DVD's are also a HUGE NO! This is because the regular plastic used in CD's and DVD's will degrade over time. This will happen faster if exposed to extreme heat or cold, or direct sunlight, but will happen regardless. In 10 years, your CD's and DVD's could be useless and unreadable.

 

M-DISC is not susceptible to the same degradation as traditional DVD's. M-DISC uses an inorganic layer (plastic is organic, made from essentially oil) that will last for at least 100 years (They claim 1000 years but that's unverified). The layer material is a trademark secret, but most people suspect it's a form of stone rock (probably synthetic, but who knows). Most DVD Writers for the last several years have supported M-DISC, and you can buy one for like $25 if needed. No idea how much the discs themselves are though, but if you're serious about keeping your data safe, it's worth the cost, especially compared to the alternatives.

[Atlantisman]

MDISCs are the best way to store data long-term.

 

Many burners these days will read and write to them without a problem.

[Dr_Frankenstein]

Even if you are backing up to a decent medium if this is long term storage I would also use Multipar to create Parity files for the backups, this means even if you had a small amount of degradation due to Bitrot, you would still be able to restore the files in their original form.

[hojnikb]

2 or 3 reliable harddrives (possibly from different brands) on a offsite location is the best way to go. optical media is garbage, flash is even worse (because data retention) and cloud is... well cloud. Provider can always go bust and so goes ur data.

[KingKeith55]

Your brain?...

[hojnikb]

Your brain?...

Like this http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113481/ ? :P :P

[eLucid]

Disc drives will last forever. 

+1

 

 

 

 

Regular CD's and DVD's are also a HUGE NO! This is because the regular plastic used in CD's and DVD's will degrade over time. This will happen faster if exposed to extreme heat or cold, or direct sunlight, but will happen regardless. In 10 years, your CD's and DVD's could be useless and unreadable.

 

 

 

This is just plain bullshit. I have CD's/DVD's that are 15 years old and still work fine. Stop with the hyperbolic statements please...

Edited September 10, 2014 by eLucid