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Long term storage solutions

Stumar
By Stumar
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Go to solution Solved by Captain_WD,

Hi,

I am looking for a long term storage solution for my mother so she can store pictures videos and other memories of her grandson. The pictures/videos come mainly though whatsapp and every few weeks i back them up to a usb drive other are taken from a dslr and are single copys. the problem is she is up to 3 drives (8, 16, 32) this year alone and its getting expensive.

 

i want to buy my mom a good shockproof 1tb hdd but i fear that 10 years from now itll break and all the data might get lost. i need a rock solid solution!

 

can someone recommend a good non could based solution?

 

Hey there Stumar,
 
I would recommend setting up either a DAS or a NAS with multiple drive bays and have two or more drives in a RAID array that provides redundancy. This way you would have everything on the same device, but in case a drive fails, you can still rebuild your data without losing any of it. 
 
DAS stands for Direct Attached Storage and is basically a larger external enclosure with one or more drives. You can have it connected constantly to a PC or use it as a regular external portable drive. I could suggest checking out WD My Book Duo as an example of a good DAS. It has two drives which can be configured in a RAID1 array, providing redundancy in case either of the two fail. Here's a link with more details: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=y2m5yb
 
NAS stands for Network Attached Storage. It is pretty similar to the DAS with the difference that it connects to your router and is accessible through the network (and Internet with the proper settings) from all devices that are connected. NASs with more than one drive bay also provide the option to create a RAID array for redundancy. A good example would be WD My Cloud Mirror. It offers useful backup features, RAID1 option and is accessible over the network from all devices: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=0qdvoa
 
For best safety it is always recommended to have your data on multiple places. You can store the main copies of the photos on a NAS/DAS and have backups on external drives stored in a box, for example. :) 
 
Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions,
 
Captain_WD.
Posted

Hi,

I am looking for a long term storage solution for my mother so she can store pictures videos and other memories of her grandson. The pictures/videos come mainly though whatsapp and every few weeks i back them up to a usb drive other are taken from a dslr and are single copys. the problem is she is up to 3 drives (8, 16, 32) this year alone and its getting expensive.

 

i want to buy my mom a good shockproof 1tb hdd but i fear that 10 years from now itll break and all the data might get lost. i need a rock solid solution!

 

can someone recommend a good non could based solution?

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Hi,

I am looking for a long term storage solution for my mother so she can store pictures videos and other memories of her grandson. The pictures/videos come mainly though whatsapp and every few weeks i back them up to a usb drive other are taken from a dslr and are single copys. the problem is she is up to 3 drives (8, 16, 32) this year alone and its getting expensive.

 

i want to buy my mom a good shockproof 1tb hdd but i fear that 10 years from now itll break and all the data might get lost. i need a rock solid solution!

 

can someone recommend a good non could based solution?

Uhh, HDD are always no matter what susceptible to drop/shock damage. SSD's are (for the most part, in reasonable limits) not.

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Two 1TB external HDDs and let one be a backup. 

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Online solution:  Amazon Glacier, its very cheap for storing archives of data.

 

Offline solutions such as HDDs or SSDs in RAID or optical media, in 10 years the connection type or format might change that the data can no longer be read.  So you will have to cycle to new tech once in a while.  There is also wear and tear, as you read and write data onto the drives as she acquires more photos, though SSDs in this case should last longer than HDDs there is also the case of accidental drive failure, chipset failure, electrical failure.

 

Read about digital preservation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_preservation

 

Sony is coming up with what they call Archival Disc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archival_Disc

 

Good article on Digital Trends regarding long term storage of data.  I like what they recommend, you can't rely on a single solution to last forever.  You need to be active in making multiple copies and backups.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/keeping-data-safe-eternity/

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Tapes?

jk

just get 2 Hard drives in raid 1.

then in 5 years swap one out.

I agree there. Get tapes for long term storage (if you can afford it) and since you are not a big corporation, you probably cannot afford it!

That's the best solution though.

Alternative is Raid. Raid 1 for 100% backup.

 
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Online solution:  Amazon Glacier, its very cheap for storing archives of data.

 

Offline solutions such as HDDs or SSDs in RAID or optical media, in 10 years the connection type or format might change that the data can no longer be read.  So you will have to cycle to new tech once in a while.  There is also wear and tear, as you read and write data onto the drives as she acquires more photos, though SSDs in this case should last longer than HDDs there is also the case of accidental drive failure, chipset failure, electrical failure.

 

Read about digital preservation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_preservation

 

Sony is coming up with what they call Archival Disc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archival_Disc

 

Good article on Digital Trends regarding long term storage of data.  I like what they recommend, you can't rely on a single solution to last forever.  You need to be active in making multiple copies and backups.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/keeping-data-safe-eternity/

 

Hi,

I am looking for a long term storage solution for my mother so she can store pictures videos and other memories of her grandson. The pictures/videos come mainly though whatsapp and every few weeks i back them up to a usb drive other are taken from a dslr and are single copys. the problem is she is up to 3 drives (8, 16, 32) this year alone and its getting expensive.

 

i want to buy my mom a good shockproof 1tb hdd but i fear that 10 years from now itll break and all the data might get lost. i need a rock solid solution!

 

can someone recommend a good non could based solution?

 

 Archival disk already exist: http://www.verbatim.com/subcat/optical-media/dvd/archival-grade-gold-dvd-r/

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  • Solution

Hi,

I am looking for a long term storage solution for my mother so she can store pictures videos and other memories of her grandson. The pictures/videos come mainly though whatsapp and every few weeks i back them up to a usb drive other are taken from a dslr and are single copys. the problem is she is up to 3 drives (8, 16, 32) this year alone and its getting expensive.

 

i want to buy my mom a good shockproof 1tb hdd but i fear that 10 years from now itll break and all the data might get lost. i need a rock solid solution!

 

can someone recommend a good non could based solution?

 

Hey there Stumar,
 
I would recommend setting up either a DAS or a NAS with multiple drive bays and have two or more drives in a RAID array that provides redundancy. This way you would have everything on the same device, but in case a drive fails, you can still rebuild your data without losing any of it. 
 
DAS stands for Direct Attached Storage and is basically a larger external enclosure with one or more drives. You can have it connected constantly to a PC or use it as a regular external portable drive. I could suggest checking out WD My Book Duo as an example of a good DAS. It has two drives which can be configured in a RAID1 array, providing redundancy in case either of the two fail. Here's a link with more details: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=y2m5yb
 
NAS stands for Network Attached Storage. It is pretty similar to the DAS with the difference that it connects to your router and is accessible through the network (and Internet with the proper settings) from all devices that are connected. NASs with more than one drive bay also provide the option to create a RAID array for redundancy. A good example would be WD My Cloud Mirror. It offers useful backup features, RAID1 option and is accessible over the network from all devices: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=0qdvoa
 
For best safety it is always recommended to have your data on multiple places. You can store the main copies of the photos on a NAS/DAS and have backups on external drives stored in a box, for example. :) 
 
Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions,
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
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