BIZ: What's the best/safest method for long time storage of content? - GoFuckYourself.com

Tempest · 11-24-2007, 07:31 PM

i.e. Need to "store" all the photo sets and videos etc. I've purchased on some media that's still going to be accessable for a few years... Other than some huge hard disks and mirror it, is there anything else that's totally reliable?

L-Pink · 11-24-2007, 08:13 PM

Right now big remote disc's are at least getting cheaper. I have thousands of dollars in Seagate 300 gb remote drives. Shooting content I have to really be carefull to back-up my back-up's. More than 2 tb in video alone. You should see the humidity controlled room where my slides are stored .... at least those days are over.

k0nr4d · 11-24-2007, 08:36 PM

tape drives

JohnnyJames · 11-24-2007, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by k0nr4d

tape drives

I must respectfully disagree with this. Tape is an incredibly unreliable media, for a couple reasons.

The machines that can read tapes are themselves subject to breakdown, software issues, firmware problems, and perhaps most importantly, obsolescence.

Tape is extremely fragile depending on environmental factors. In fact, tape, if not periodically "rolled", will decline faster.

If your storage goal is 5 years, tape may be okay. If your storage goal is longer, I strongly disagree.

Being an organic material, tape is subject to heat, humidity, breakage, and decay of many types and degrees.

xroach · 11-24-2007, 09:05 PM

2 mirrored file servers in 2 different colo spots with big raid 5 drives

bu((aneer · 11-24-2007, 09:20 PM

dont assume that burned dvds can keep.. they are MUCH more unreliable than professionally burned disks!

Tempest · 11-25-2007, 01:00 AM

Any other opinions?

L-Pink · 11-25-2007, 01:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tempest

Any other opinions?

Remote hard drives are getting so cheap, go that route.

V_RocKs · 11-25-2007, 02:13 AM

Double sided DVD's... 28 gigs...

V_RocKs · 11-25-2007, 02:13 AM

Also... if you store it on an HD... Power it down. The reason HD's die is they have a spin life of only a few years... So stop spinning it.

Vick! · 11-25-2007, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyJames

I must respectfully disagree with this.

Welcome to GFY

minusonebit · 11-25-2007, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by V_RocKs

Also... if you store it on an HD... Power it down. The reason HD's die is they have a spin life of only a few years... So stop spinning it.

This is true.

Evil E · 11-25-2007, 02:52 AM

Just burn them on DVDs(at least 2 copies) and check them out from time to time... also keep a copy on an removable HD. You want to go cheap (dvds(10 cents)hd(100$)...

xroach · 11-25-2007, 04:50 AM

anything burned has a lifespan of < 5 years

Ron Bennett · 11-25-2007, 05:20 AM

DVDs from two different major brands stored in two different physical locations (ie. one at home, another at work, etc) - be sure to check the location of manufacture, since that can vary even within the same brand; economy no-name / bulk packs are often of lessor quality...

Do some research on-line of the various DVD brands / location of manufacture / quality, etc.

I have DVDs upwards of 5 years old and still quite readable. On a related note, writable DVDs, despite having a much higher density, are of a far more reliable design than writable CDs, which often tended to degrade dramatically within months.

Hard Drives are NOT suitable for longterm backup use for numerous reasons ... hardware compatibility, degradation over time, starting up a HD after it's been sitting unused for many years lead to catastrophic failure; DVDs tend to be more forgiving - often much data can still be recovered using simple tools.

As crazy as it sounds, magnetic tape can be a good longterm inexpensive backup medium, assuming a decent brand and is stored properly; two copies in two different physical environmentally controlled locations.

Other backup methods include paper - data encoded as small dots onto paper tape / sheets of paper; think scantron, but more advanced.

For content you shoot yourself and/or have purchased exclusively, the negatives will outlive most all electronic backup methods - see my comment above about backing up onto paper, which is likely the only one of the methods discussed so far that would potentially survive longer than negatives.

Lastly, read up on the approaches the U.S. Library of Congress and other govt agencies are using to archive data ... they have for more important data to lose than basically anyone here on GFY, so the methods they use are likely more than adequate for your needs.

Ron

Lykos · 11-25-2007, 07:24 AM

I think everything is risky...we just use HDD's...tons of them...but again all is risky

CaptainHowdy · 11-25-2007, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyJames

I must respectfully disagree with this.

That was refreshing

!

Babaganoosh · 11-25-2007, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyJames

I must respectfully disagree with this.

We don't talk like that on GFY. Might I suggest one of the following phrases in the future:

Bull fucking shit, bitch.
You don't know shit from Shinola.
Stupid American cow. You believe what they want you to believe. You are a sheep and your president is an idiot.
Shut the fuck up, douchenozzle.
Nigga, please.

JohnnyJames · 11-25-2007, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babaganoosh

We don't talk like that on GFY. Might I suggest one of the following phrases in the future:

Bull fucking shit, bitch.
You don't know shit from Shinola.
Stupid American cow. You believe what they want you to believe. You are a sheep and your president is an idiot.
Shut the fuck up, douchenozzle.
Nigga, please.

Shut the fuck up, douchenozzle!

baddog · 11-25-2007, 12:29 PM

dark bottles

Violetta · 11-25-2007, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babaganoosh

We don't talk like that on GFY. Might I suggest one of the following phrases in the future:

Bull fucking shit, bitch.
You don't know shit from Shinola.
Stupid American cow. You believe what they want you to believe. You are a sheep and your president is an idiot.
Shut the fuck up, douchenozzle.
Nigga, please.

starpimps · 11-25-2007, 03:11 PM

i dont know if this is the best solution but i was thinking of picking up this bad boy called the "drobo"

http://www.drobo.com/products.aspx

looks sexy as hell

tony286 · 11-25-2007, 03:14 PM

archival dvds or cds they last 300yrs.

MaDalton · 11-25-2007, 03:18 PM

i use buffalo terastation raid5 nas - and only power them up when i need them

plus everything duplicated on DVD

tony286 · 11-25-2007, 03:56 PM

I got the archival cds for pics been using ext hd's for video.I fill them up and put them on the shelf. Im not worried really about 10 yrs from now for most of the stuff. Its not art its porn and by then it will be old shit no one will want to see.

rowan · 11-25-2007, 04:07 PM

I'm using hard drives for short to medium term storage at the moment.

- RAID5 array for basic redundancy/availability as my main "working" drives
- regular full and incremental backups to a second RAID0 array in the same machine
- regular full and incremental backups to a 1TB external drive

There's still a chance my data could be wiped out by a freak electrical spike if the external drive is connected at the time, or fire destroys the room. I'll be buying a second external drive to store/rotate at an offsite location soon.

L-Pink · 11-25-2007, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babaganoosh

We don't talk like that on GFY. Might I suggest one of the following phrases in the future:

Bull fucking shit, bitch.
You don't know shit from Shinola.
Stupid American cow. You believe what they want you to believe. You are a sheep and your president is an idiot.
Shut the fuck up, douchenozzle.
Nigga, please.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyJames

Shut the fuck up, douchenozzle!

You learn fast

.

BV · 11-25-2007, 04:24 PM

I use PirateBay.

lol....

But seriously, as far as mini dv content, the tapes are very reliable, especially if you keep them in a climate controlled area. I think they will outlast me.

In addition i keep a copy of the raw captured avi as well as several copies of the finished member ready videos.

As far as my SLR dig images, i keep a few copies on various drives, some spinning all the time in a PC and some on external drives.

In addition to everything saved above, my servers are all RAID1, so hopefully I am good to go.

Tempest · 11-25-2007, 06:51 PM

Well I've got an external drive I've been storing stuff on but need to either get more or burn to DVDs... I just bruned my first DVDs this last week but am concerned about them going bad etc.

What's the best way to burn DVDs to have your best chance and a good DVD and long term access?

11-24-2007, 07:31 PM	#1
Tempest Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: May 2004 Location: West Coast, Canada. Posts: 10,217	BIZ: What's the best/safest method for long time storage of content? i.e. Need to "store" all the photo sets and videos etc. I've purchased on some media that's still going to be accessable for a few years... Other than some huge hard disks and mirror it, is there anything else that's totally reliable?

11-24-2007, 08:36 PM	#3
k0nr4d Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Poland Posts: 9,229	tape drives __________________ Mechanical Bunny Media Mechbunny Tube Script \| Mechbunny Webcam Aggregator Script \| Custom Web Development

11-25-2007, 02:52 AM	#13
Evil E Confirmed User Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Lazyness is a lifestyle Posts: 3,201	Just burn them on DVDs(at least 2 copies) and check them out from time to time... also keep a copy on an removable HD. You want to go cheap (dvds(10 cents)hd(100$)... __________________ A girl once told me "Give me 8 inches and make it HURT". So, I fucked her twice and hit her with a brick.

11-25-2007, 05:20 AM	#15
Ron Bennett Confirmed User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 1,653	DVDs from two different major brands stored in two different physical locations (ie. one at home, another at work, etc) - be sure to check the location of manufacture, since that can vary even within the same brand; economy no-name / bulk packs are often of lessor quality... Do some research on-line of the various DVD brands / location of manufacture / quality, etc. I have DVDs upwards of 5 years old and still quite readable. On a related note, writable DVDs, despite having a much higher density, are of a far more reliable design than writable CDs, which often tended to degrade dramatically within months. Hard Drives are NOT suitable for longterm backup use for numerous reasons ... hardware compatibility, degradation over time, starting up a HD after it's been sitting unused for many years lead to catastrophic failure; DVDs tend to be more forgiving - often much data can still be recovered using simple tools. As crazy as it sounds, magnetic tape can be a good longterm inexpensive backup medium, assuming a decent brand and is stored properly; two copies in two different physical environmentally controlled locations. Other backup methods include paper - data encoded as small dots onto paper tape / sheets of paper; think scantron, but more advanced. For content you shoot yourself and/or have purchased exclusively, the negatives will outlive most all electronic backup methods - see my comment above about backing up onto paper, which is likely the only one of the methods discussed so far that would potentially survive longer than negatives. Lastly, read up on the approaches the U.S. Library of Congress and other govt agencies are using to archive data ... they have for more important data to lose than basically anyone here on GFY, so the methods they use are likely more than adequate for your needs. Ron __________________ Domagon - Website Management and Domain Name Sales

11-25-2007, 07:24 AM	#16
Lykos Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: World Posts: 31,030	I think everything is risky...we just use HDD's...tons of them...but again all is risky __________________

11-24-2007, 08:13 PM	#2
L-Pink working on my tan Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Florida/Kentucky Posts: 39,151	Right now big remote disc's are at least getting cheaper. I have thousands of dollars in Seagate 300 gb remote drives. Shooting content I have to really be carefull to back-up my back-up's. More than 2 tb in video alone. You should see the humidity controlled room where my slides are stored .... at least those days are over.

11-24-2007, 09:05 PM	#5
xroach Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: vancouver, bc Posts: 963	2 mirrored file servers in 2 different colo spots with big raid 5 drives

11-24-2007, 09:20 PM	#6
bu((aneer Confirmed User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 651	dont assume that burned dvds can keep.. they are MUCH more unreliable than professionally burned disks!

11-25-2007, 01:00 AM	#7
Tempest Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: May 2004 Location: West Coast, Canada. Posts: 10,217	Any other opinions?

11-25-2007, 02:13 AM	#9
V_RocKs Damn Right I Kiss Ass! Industry Role: Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Cowtown, USA Posts: 32,422	Double sided DVD's... 28 gigs...

11-25-2007, 04:50 AM	#14
xroach Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: vancouver, bc Posts: 963	anything burned has a lifespan of < 5 years

11-25-2007, 12:29 PM	#20
baddog So Fucking Banned Industry Role: Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: the beach, SoCal Posts: 107,089	dark bottles

11-25-2007, 03:11 PM	#22
starpimps Confirmed User Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: internets Posts: 6,954	i dont know if this is the best solution but i was thinking of picking up this bad boy called the "drobo" http://www.drobo.com/products.aspx looks sexy as hell __________________ Teen Porn Models / Solo Girls

11-25-2007, 03:14 PM	#23
tony286 lurker Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: atlanta Posts: 57,021	archival dvds or cds they last 300yrs.

11-25-2007, 03:18 PM	#24
MaDalton I am Amazing Content! Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 39,835	i use buffalo terastation raid5 nas - and only power them up when i need them plus everything duplicated on DVD __________________ AmazingContent.com - providing only the best content and service since 2003 Monetize your content on Veegaz.com - one of Germanies largest VOD sites Got German traffic? We convert it into money for you! Skype: madalton02826 - Email: oltecconsult [at] gmail [dot] com

11-25-2007, 03:56 PM	#25
tony286 lurker Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: atlanta Posts: 57,021	I got the archival cds for pics been using ext hd's for video.I fill them up and put them on the shelf. Im not worried really about 10 yrs from now for most of the stuff. Its not art its porn and by then it will be old shit no one will want to see.

11-25-2007, 04:07 PM	#26
rowan Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 17,393	I'm using hard drives for short to medium term storage at the moment. - RAID5 array for basic redundancy/availability as my main "working" drives - regular full and incremental backups to a second RAID0 array in the same machine - regular full and incremental backups to a 1TB external drive There's still a chance my data could be wiped out by a freak electrical spike if the external drive is connected at the time, or fire destroys the room. I'll be buying a second external drive to store/rotate at an offsite location soon.

11-25-2007, 04:24 PM	#28
BV wtf Industry Role: Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Bikini State, FL USA Posts: 10,914	I use PirateBay. lol.... But seriously, as far as mini dv content, the tapes are very reliable, especially if you keep them in a climate controlled area. I think they will outlast me. In addition i keep a copy of the raw captured avi as well as several copies of the finished member ready videos. As far as my SLR dig images, i keep a few copies on various drives, some spinning all the time in a PC and some on external drives. In addition to everything saved above, my servers are all RAID1, so hopefully I am good to go.

11-25-2007, 06:51 PM	#29
Tempest Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: May 2004 Location: West Coast, Canada. Posts: 10,217	Well I've got an external drive I've been storing stuff on but need to either get more or burn to DVDs... I just bruned my first DVDs this last week but am concerned about them going bad etc. What's the best way to burn DVDs to have your best chance and a good DVD and long term access?