Storing valuable data for the longest

[zoran]

What would be the best way (and longest) one could store his valuable data? Like for eg. old videos from childhood etc.
I was thinking to buy a spinner and just put them there. Never need to work the spinner, just have a dedicated hdd without operating it. Would that last the longest? What would you do?

 

[zhenya]

Physical media like a blu-ray disk is likely to hold up for the longest period of time, however if we begin talking really long time - like 30-60 years in the future or more, the biggest difficulty - whether with a optical disk or a hard disk is that it will be very difficult to find the hardware to read the media. Physical connectors change. You have to preserve the entire chain - the reader, the computer it connects to, the operating system it runs on.

For pictures, printing them out is the cheapest and best way to ensure they last a really long time.

Realistically, my plan is that all of that type of stuff continually gets migrated from one new computer to the next, and backed up multiple ways - locally and in the cloud - thus it moves forward with me as technology improves. This doesn't really work though if you want to preserve stuff for someone else to find and access after you are gone - for that, you really need some sort of physical media.

Another option if you are a bit more technically inclined would be to create and store it on a public web site that gets crawled by the Internet Archive. Then, even when your site goes down, those who know where to look would at least be able to find it there.

 

[robbieduncan]

If you do go down the optical route be careful what you buy. Run of the mill burnable disks don’t actually have that long a storage shelf life! You can read a jot here: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/blog.storagecraft.com/data-storage-lifespan/amp/

If you use your own hard drive have 2-3 and use a file system that prevents bit rot (btrfs as an example)

My solution would be to make it someone else’s problem! Pay Amazon (or Google or Microsoft or Backblaze etc) to store your data. They will reliably store it in multiple places replacing bad drives etc and basically ensure it doesn’t go bad

 

[robbieduncan]

Physical connectors change. You have to preserve the entire chain - the reader, the computer it connects to, the operating system it runs on.

As we found out in the UK with the Doomsday Project (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project). Basically unreadable now (I believe there was an effort to move it to more modern storage and formats). Unlike the original Doomsday Book which can still be read over 900 years later...

 

[shinji]

Physical media could be damaged, stolen, etc. Better off storing it in the cloud.

 

[dmr727]

Physical media could be damaged, stolen, etc. Better off storing it in the cloud.

I think you do both. I have a bunch of old 8mm tapes that I made digital, and store them both locally and on the cloud. Everything has gotten so inexpensive - there's not a lot of reason to not build in as much redundancy as possible.

 

[ucfgrad93]

I think you do both. I have a bunch of old 8mm tapes that I made digital, and store them both locally and on the cloud. Everything has gotten so inexpensive - there's not a lot of reason to not build in as much redundancy as possible.

Agreed. Physical and digital copies are the way to go.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I would try and move to the cloud for the time being. Let those after you decide what the best medium is at that time.

 

[HDFan]

I was thinking to buy a spinner and just put them there. Never need to work the spinner, just have a dedicated hdd without operating it. Would that last the longest? What would you do?

whether with a optical disk or a hard disk is that it will be very difficult to find the hardware to read the media. Physical connectors change. You have to preserve the entire chain - the reader, the computer it connects to, the operating system it runs on.

My solution would be to make it someone else’s problem! Pay Amazon (or Google or Microsoft or Backblaze etc) to store your data.

Long term storage on hard disks won't work as the drives have to be refreshed every few years. And, as above, you run into issues with file formats, connectors, etc. You can keep them in a safe deposit box, and then just rotate them every few years. When formats/connectors change you can do the conversions when you do the refresh.

I believe tape storage is the best format for long term physical storage. However you run into the same issue, formats used, whether the hardware exists to read the tape when you need it, etc.

My solution so far is to keep everything on active and active back up disks. However I am reaching storage limitations in terms of the number of physical disks involved. Just had to add a maxed out 128 TB unit. Don't know what I will do when it fills up.

On-line digital storage is looking better and better. There are inexpensive options, but as upload speeds are slow it can take months to do the uploads. I started a new backup 2 months ago. Running at my ISPs maximum upload speed (40 Mbps) it has at least another 2 months to go. I am backing up a lot of terabyes though.