Are SD cards susceptible to corruption in long term storage or a good viable option in my case?

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

Greetings Everyone.

 

I want to store some vital information in a small form factor that is easily concealable. The data I want to preserve are excel sheets of confidential records throughout decades. It is about 60 GBs in size. I wanted advice on how to store it in one place. I cannot let it's size be large and noticeable.

An SD card was first option because of the size and the price isn't that high. I don't need high read/write speeds and CDs with such capacity aren't available here.

The problem is that I don't know if data can be kept for long duration on flash type storage and if there are high chances of the card getting corrupt.

 

Thanking you in anticipation.

[KuJoe]

When I was researching it a few years back I found that flash storage is not a viable long term storage option. I don't have specifics as to why but USB thumb drives and SD cards were not recommended at the time.

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

3 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

When I was researching it a few years back I found that flash storage is not a viable long term storage option. I don't have specifics as to why but USB thumb drives and SD cards were not recommended at the time.

I see. I was afraid of that. What would you recommend?

[TurbulentWinds]

5 minutes ago, Syed Mustafa Ahmed said:

I see. I was afraid of that. What would you recommend?

I think magnetic tape and HDDs are the way most people go.

[Vandorlot]

Just now, TurbulentWinds said:

I think magnetic tape and HDDs are the way most people go.

Mangets?? They harm hdds

[KuJoe]

3 minutes ago, Syed Mustafa Ahmed said:

I see. I was afraid of that. What would you recommend?

What you can do is get multiple USB drives or SD cards and rotate them out every 12 months or so with new storage devices just to be safe. Otherwise I would look at off-site backup options like Backblaze, Dropbox, Amazon Glacier, Google Drive, Amazon Drive, or something similar (I personally use BackBlaze, Google Drive, and Amazon Drive).

[TurbulentWinds]

Just now, Vandorlot said:

Mangets?? They harm hdds

Magnetic tape. That's a type of long term storage device.

[KuJoe]

Just now, TurbulentWinds said:

Magnetic tape. That's a type of long term storage device.

Yeah, excellent for 15+ years but costly.

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

Just now, TurbulentWinds said:

I think magnetic tape and HDDs are the way most people go.

I have a spare HDD but that is too large for me and magnetic tape isn't an option because I don't have anything to write on the tape with.

Honestly HDD would be the best option but I've already considered that.

[TurbulentWinds]

Just now, Syed Mustafa Ahmed said:

I have a spare HDD but that is too large for me and magnetic tape isn't an option because I don't have anything to write on the tape with.

Honestly HDD would be the best option but I've already considered that.

Perhaps a 2.5 inch drive?

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

2 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

What you can do is get multiple USB drives or SD cards and rotate them out every 12 months or so with new storage devices just to be safe. Otherwise I would look at off-site backup options like Backblaze, Dropbox, Amazon Glacier, Google Drive, Amazon Drive, or something similar (I personally use BackBlaze, Google Drive, and Amazon Drive).

I've though of cloud but I already have it on cloud. I would like to have it physically with me. It's one use case is for emergencies.

[Guest]

If your running a NAS with mechanical spinning hard drives, they are more vulnerable to failure due to the wear and tear of the moving parts. Since its flash based storage, the vulnerability to a failure is very minimal as there are no mechanical parts. You could also consider cloud based storage services where everything is stored on the cloud+ you have to pay the vendor so much per year depending upon how much storage you opt for.

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

1 minute ago, TheBeastPC said:

If your running a NAS with mechanical spinning hard drives, they are more vulnerable to failure due to the wear and tear of the moving parts. Since its flash based storage, the vulnerability to a failure is very minimal as there are no mechanical parts. You could also consider cloud based storage services where everything is stored on the cloud+ you have to pay the vendor so much per year depending upon how much storage you opt for.

I see. Flash seemed more safe to me because of the same reason.

I already have it on cloud but would like to have it with be physically in emergencies that's why I chose the SD card route.

Although I wasn't sure if it was that safe/secure.

[tarfeef101]

Old flash devices can simply lose their ability to retain a charge, and thereby lose information. It takes a long time, and is often predictable, but it will happen even if it just sits alone on a sheld. However, a magnetic drive (like an hdd or tape drive) will not lose the info for theoretically centuries as long as it isn't exposed to a large magnetic or kinetic force that might harm the disk/tape inside. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Syed Mustafa Ahmed said:

I see. Flash seemed more safe to me because of the same reason.

I already have it on cloud but would like to have it with be physically in emergencies that's why I chose the SD card route.

Although I wasn't sure if it was that safe/secure.

Flash storage comes in a variety of storage capacities as well, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, the biggest capacity is 480GB when it comes to a SD card form factor (Sandisk have these I think).

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

2 minutes ago, tarfeef101 said:

Old flash devices can simply lose their ability to retain a charge, and thereby lose information. It takes a long time, and is often predictable, but it will happen even if it just sits alone on a sheld. However, a magnetic drive (like an hdd or tape drive) will not lose the info for theoretically centuries as long as it isn't exposed to a large magnetic or kinetic force that might harm the disk/tape inside. 

That's the reason I wasn't that sure.

I could use magnetic tape but currently I do not have anything to write the data on the tape.

Question: Will continuous use of the SD card keep the data from deteriorating?

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

4 minutes ago, TheBeastPC said:

Flash storage comes in a variety of storage capacities as well, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, the biggest capacity is 480GB when it comes to a SD card form factor (Sandisk have these I think).

Yes, and as my data is about 60 GB this seems like a good option but to be on the safe side and to future proof, I'll go with 128 GB one just in case.

[Guest]

I would use an HDD to store back-up stuff on. And then just unplug it when you are not writing/reading stuff to it. It would last a LONG time.

 

I would also consider using a DVD/cd-rom to store back-ups on. Just store them propperly.

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

Just now, Dutch-stoner said:

I would use an HDD to store back-up stuff on. And then just unplug it when you are not writing/reading stuff to it. It would last a LONG time.

 

I would also consider using a DVD/cd-rom to store back-ups on. Just store them propperly.

Thankyou for the input sir.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Syed Mustafa Ahmed said:

Yes, and as my data is about 60 GB this seems like a good option but to be on the safe side and to future proof, I'll go with 128 GB one just in case.

Always good to get a bigger capacity drive so you can add more data for backup in the future.

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

1 minute ago, TheBeastPC said:

Always good to get a bigger capacity drive so you can add more data for backup in the future.

Bigger is always better.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Syed Mustafa Ahmed said:

Thankyou for the input sir.

Another piece of input: my oldest HDD still in operation, is an 7+ year old Samsung HDD. And it's been running 24/7 for 7+ years. And the health shows 97%, which is actually really good for it's age.

 

*PS: I always keep my pc on, and I have turned off all power savings. So the disk should not have to spin up/down alot, keeping temps the same which is a big +.

[Syed Mustafa Ahmed]

Just now, Dutch-stoner said:

Another piece of input: my oldest HDD still in operation, is an 7+ year old Samsung HDD. And it's been running 24/7 for 7+ years. And the health shows 97%, which is actually really good for it's age.

 

*PS: I always keep my pc on, and I have turned off all power savings. So the disk should not have to spin up/down alot, keeping temps the same which is a big +.

I can see why they are so reliable. I happen to have a leftover 120GB HDD on my hand. I think I'll use that instead of the SD card route as the card may have problems in the future.

Thankyou for the advice.

[Sauron]

SD cards are some of the least reliable storage available. They are good enough for temporary storage in things like cameras and phones, but they are not designed to hold mission critical data, let alone for long periods of time.

2 minutes ago, Syed Mustafa Ahmed said:

Question: Will continuous use of the SD card keep the data from deteriorating?

No, precisely the opposite. The more you stress it, the sooner it will fail. Continuous writes in particular are very harmful for SD cards.

 

Blue rays can go up to 100GB in size if I'm not mistaken, and are very durable compared to most storage as well as comparatively cheap. The obvious downside is that once the data is written, it cannot be modified on the same disc - any change will require a new disc to be saved. It is also larger than a thumbdrive or sd card, but you could still hide one in a large pocket or strap it to your body if necessary (in a protective case of course).

 

Another option is to simply make a LOT of copies on separate thumbdrives and regularly add new ones. This is obviously more costly, but it would allow you to just use thumbdrives when you need to carry it with you. In case of failure, the chances of all your copies being corrupted is very low.

 

You could also use a cloud storage service, as long as you trust the company providing it; that would eliminate reliability and concealability concerns. It would also allow you to access the data from anywhere, as long as you have access to an internet connection.

[Sauron]

3 minutes ago, Dutch-stoner said:

Another piece of input: my oldest HDD still in operation, is an 7+ year old Samsung HDD. And it's been running 24/7 for 7+ years. And the health shows 97%, which is actually really good for it's age.

 

*PS: I always keep my pc on, and I have turned off all power savings. So the disk should not have to spin up/down alot, keeping temps the same which is a big +.

 

1 minute ago, Syed Mustafa Ahmed said:

I can see why they are so reliable. I happen to have a leftover 120GB HDD on my hand. I think I'll use that instead of the SD card route as the card may have problems in the future.

Thankyou for the advice.

HDDs are extremely susceptible to weather and impact. One fall could (literally) pulverize your data. Furthermore, while there are cases of HDDs lasting a long time, statistically they are far from immune to failure. Even though most of the time they fail mechanically and the data is recoverable, it's not a good experience. There is a reason most storage servers use some sort of raid and are configured with an off site backup - HDDs offer cheap mass storage, but their reliability is not to be completely depended upon. External and old drives are typically even worse.