Just a crazy backup thought / discussion

That's what I said when 250GB externals were the norm, and now they are
filled with data... now a 50gb bluray disc would be nice for the job.

Optical disks really aren't great for backups. I've never been able to
depend on them.

For small jobs, use flash drives.

For large drives, use hard drives.

Consider the cost of a DVD writer, and 50 blanks... About $75 total. That
gives you 4.6gig x 50 = 230gig of storage. For $75 you can get a 300gig+
hard drive. Instant access to your data and much faster to do backups.

For even better security you get a second drive and alternate backups, or
run RAID0 or RAID5... etc.

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 01:01:23 +0100 (CET), Rookie
wrote:

kony wrote in news:ag1jl395cg2tm2gu8cu0rk53clorf89v68@
4ax.com:

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 10:51:18 -0000, "GT"
wrote:

"Rookie" wrote in message
news:Xns99FEE4FCC9963jfk6@localhost...
"philo" wrote in
:


Burning DVD's is cheap and easy...and no special software is needed to
read the data.


Still too difficult having to burn more than 10 dvds for a full system
backup... let's hope blu ray recorders finally get cheaper.

Way more than 10 - I have a 500GB and a 160GB drive. Both are about half
full. I need nearly 60 DVDs!


External 500GB HDD, about $120, or since you aren't using
but half the capacity of the present 500GB, buy a 320GB
external and swap the drives around, though having some
breathing room for data expansion is always nice, the more
the better.


That's what I said when 250GB externals were the norm, and now they are
filled with data... now a 50gb bluray disc would be nice for the job.

Several hundred dollars worth of less convenient storage
does have some virtues over another hard drive, but most of
those virtues come from easier transportation and/or
distribution.

I also tend to favor HD-DVD over Blu-ray, there is no
telling how far into the future one will be able to get a
blu-ray player, it may end up obsolete like Betamax.

"Noozer" wrote in message
news:zEm6j.2930$jq2.2443@pd7urf1no...
That's what I said when 250GB externals were the norm, and now they are
filled with data... now a 50gb bluray disc would be nice for the job.

Optical disks really aren't great for backups. I've never been able to
depend on them.

For small jobs, use flash drives.

For large drives, use hard drives.

But, Noozer + Kony:

Hard drives fail. DVDs and CDs have no moving parts and don't fail. Backups
need to be 100% reliable and a hard disk isn't.

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:54:50 -0000, "GT"
wrote:

"Noozer" wrote in message
news:zEm6j.2930$jq2.2443@pd7urf1no...
That's what I said when 250GB externals were the norm, and now they are
filled with data... now a 50gb bluray disc would be nice for the job.

Optical disks really aren't great for backups. I've never been able to
depend on them.

For small jobs, use flash drives.

For large drives, use hard drives.

But, Noozer + Kony:

Hard drives fail. DVDs and CDs have no moving parts and don't fail. Backups
need to be 100% reliable and a hard disk isn't.


DVDs and CDs have at least four common failure mechanisms.

1) Bending produces hairline cracks and they may shatter in
a drive once spun up.

2) Scratches to the top may destroy the data layer.

3) Instable dye may turn bad over time.

4) Instable coating may delaminate.

I've had plenty of discs just go bad sitting in a humidity
and temp controlled room, not exposed to strong light,
almost no sunlight at all in the room... sitting in their
case in a CD rack. They read fine right after being written
and that's the problem, that they seem ok until they've aged
awhile... generally it took around a year or longer.

IMO, the best backup is to use a RAID1 or 5 array of hard
drives, like a NAS or fileserver, AND a separate offline,
not-regularly-powered hard drive(s).

Perhaps once HD-DVD burners and media are inexpensive, it
will be less of a bother to make redundant copies of discs.
As it stands today, doing that with DVD+- just takes far too
many discs for many purposes, and a lot of time. I find the
more time a backup takes, the less often I do it in a timely
manner instead of putting it off.

3) Instable dye may turn bad over time.

I've had this happen many times - even with good media. Different drives
write with different qualities. Different disc use different dyes. While
there may be perfect combinations of drive to media, it's near impossible to
find these pairings.

IMO, the best backup is to use a RAID1 or 5 array of hard
drives, like a NAS or fileserver, AND a separate offline,
not-regularly-powered hard drive(s).

This is what I do now - four 500GB drives in a RAID5 array, providing 1.5TB
of storage. Anything important on that array gets archived daily to a
seperate drive in a removable bay. The really important stuff gets backed up
weekly to monthly on a external drive.