Offline backup

[Spacefighter]

The new DriveSavers episode got me wondering what would be the better choice for offline backups. Keeping everything close to the same so USB3 and 2.5in.  say ~100GB backup of most important files quarterly.
USB3 Flash drive

Or USB3 adapter

SSD

or

2.5in HDD.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

It depends on how often you'll be accessing the drive and what storage conditions it'll be in. But here's the skinny:

• According to https://superuser.com/questions/284427/how-much-time-until-an-unused-hard-drive-loses-its-data, hard drives will lose the magnetic field strength at a rate of 1% per year. So assuming this is the case, you can keep an HDD offline for a long time.
• According to https://www.anandtech.com/show/9248/the-truth-about-ssd-data-retention, flash memory's data retention is viable for 52 weeks in a 30C environment.

So if you want reliability, go with an HDD. Either way, make sure to plug the drive in once in a while, check the drive for errors, maybe move some files around to exercise it.

[Spacefighter]

Wow, some how I never knew that about flash. Feel like an idiot now.

Thanks M.Yurizaki