Topic: Back Up Your Stuff! 3 instances of every file makes me sleep better!

[morst]

Most backup strategies rely on three total instances of any file, such that when a drive fails, you don't have to run to your nearest outlet as soon as they open, to get a new empty drive, and immediately back up your remaining (fragile) version.

If you have a DVD or Blu-Ray data disc burned, or have saved the original SD card files intact, like some do, then that does count as three.
I hate to hear about folks losing precious files, and am overly cautious about risky scenarios.
If you share everything with others and could get it back if you needed it, I suppose that counts too.
Call me alarmist, but an oz of prevention ...

[GLouie]

I tend to agree, and note that any media can fail or be lost at any time. For large amounts of data, hard drives are the only practical media for me, but people should realize they can fail at any time. In additional, I'm a believer in an off site copy as well; I keep a  large HDD copy of my home data at the office, and rotate the drive with one kept at home, along with the primary drives with my data. Cloud storage seems too expensive and slow for me, despite the cost of several large HDs. I dislike optical media now, nor leaving things on memory cards which seems inefficient to me, along with longevity questions.

Ask yourself at any time, what do I do if my primary computer died, the house burned down, a pipe bursts, etc. I was burglarized once, and they took my main computer at the time, a laptop. I had a clone of the drive at work, and was back in business a day later after merely buying a new computer, with only minimal loss of a few emails (POP) due to not cloning for a week. I have only had a few HDs fail, but it does happen. There are systems to automatically do backups, which could be great for most people.

[nulldogmas]

Also agreed — I keep one local backup via Time Machine, and one cloud backup via Backblaze. It's a small price to pay for peace of mind.

[voltronic]

I have long been a big fan of BD-R as part of a backup strategy. It is more long-term stable than HDD or other magnetic storage media as long as you use quality HTL media (not LTH) and store it carefully.

You can find a list of the different media types here:

https://blu-raydisc.info/licensee-list/discmanuid-licenseelist.php

[aaronji]

I have my recordings on my internal hard drives, in RAID on my NAS server, and backed up in a cloud storage system (iDrive). Sometimes I will back things up to my workstation at the office, as well (please don't tell the boss). A little paranoid, perhaps, but experience is a harsh master: when my son was about 6 or 8 months old, our hard drive crashed with all of the baby photos (including sonograms). My wife was crushed. Luckily, I had a colleague who was a real computer guru and he helped me recover everything. Learned my lesson, though...

[voltronic]

I have my recordings on my internal hard drives, in RAID on my NAS server, and backed up in a cloud storage system (iDrive). Sometimes I will back things up to my workstation at the office, as well (please don't tell the boss). A little paranoid, perhaps, but experience is a harsh master: when my son was about 6 or 8 months old, our hard drive crashed with all of the baby photos (including sonograms). My wife was crushed. Luckily, I had a colleague who was a real computer guru and he helped me recover everything. Learned my lesson, though...

That's not paranoid at all. I always assume every hard drive will fail, it's just a matter of when. The people who have the best backup strategies tend to be those who have had unpleasant experiences like yours.

[morst]

That's not paranoid at all. I always assume every hard drive will fail, it's just a matter of when. The people who have the best backup strategies tend to be those who have had unpleasant experiences like yours.

To be glib, there are only two types of storage media; those that have already failed, and those that will do so in the future.


And thanks, Volt, for the reminder about BD-R media!!

[moondust.and.solitude]

I have long been a big fan of BD-R as part of a backup strategy. It is more long-term stable than HDD or other magnetic storage media as long as you use quality HTL media (not LTH) sand store it carefully.

You can find a list of the different media types here:

https://blu-raydisc.info/licensee-list/discmanuid-licenseelist.php

+1

I'm a fan of BD-R backups as well. I have over 460 BD-R's (a little over 10TB of DATA) neatly tucked into a suitcase. Some of my BD-R's are creeping up on 18-20 years old and still read without hesitation.  I have the same files on HD and (some) on cloud services.

[guitard]

I have long been a big fan of BD-R as part of a backup strategy.

I'm a fan of BD-R backups as well.

It didn't start out as part of a backup strategy, but I have been making blu-ray versions of all my shows for some years now.  Not for me; I don't even own a blu-ray disc player.  I do it for my brother; someone who doesn't have a single "techie" bone in him.  But he has a blu-ray player and knows how to use it.  So I have given him a blu-ray disc copy of each of my shows.  But as I said, I didn't start doing this as part of a backup strategy; it was because he goes to many of these shows with me, and that's the only way he can watch my videos.  He keeps them all neatly organized on a shelf.  I've come to realize that it's sort of a backup for me.  Not of my 4K video masters (I back those up with a NAS, additional HD, and Backblaze).  But it's an HD copy of my (4K) videos synced with 24bit audio I recorded.  With the 3x backup system I have in place, it's not likely that I'll run into problems.  But it's still nice knowing that if all else fails, there is still something out there.

[morst]

I have long been a big fan of BD-R as part of a backup strategy. It is more long-term stable than HDD or other magnetic storage media as long as you use quality HTL media (not LTH) and store it carefully.

You can find a list of the different media types here:

https://blu-raydisc.info/licensee-list/discmanuid-licenseelist.php

It appears that the manufacturers agreed that LTH discs must be labeled as such.
I have some old JVC discs that clearly say LTH on the packaging, and I have some Ritek discs which don't say that, and they mention that they use "inorganic" dyes, which is the HTL material.

[opsopcopolis]

I definitely need to take a look at my backup setup and make some changes/updates

[aaronji]

I have my recordings on my internal hard drives, in RAID on my NAS server, and backed up in a cloud storage system (iDrive). Sometimes I will back things up to my workstation at the office, as well (please don't tell the boss). A little paranoid, perhaps, but experience is a harsh master: when my son was about 6 or 8 months old, our hard drive crashed with all of the baby photos (including sonograms). My wife was crushed. Luckily, I had a colleague who was a real computer guru and he helped me recover everything. Learned my lesson, though...

That's not paranoid at all. I always assume every hard drive will fail, it's just a matter of when. The people who have the best backup strategies tend to be those who have had unpleasant experiences like yours.

It's kind of funny: I had thought about some sort of backup solution for quite a long time. Seeing the devastated look on Mrs. aaronji's face when she thought all of the baby photos were gone was all it took to get me off my lazy butt. At this point, a decade plus later, I am so glad I finally did. There is just too much vital stuff that exists only in digital form. I would be willing to bet, though, that at least one of the people reading this post has to go through a similar trauma before they take action...

[morst]

Wondering if Verbatim is worth close to a buck a disc when other brands are going for more like fifty cents each, and neither brand is directly listed on the handy reference page as being a registered manufacturer?! Thinking I'll take a chance with some PlexDisc from B&H or maybe even Clamazon...
Logo top is only 40 cents each plus tax at B&H
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1117556-REG/plexdisc_plex_633_814_25gb_bd_r_logo_top.html
*** Was thinking about starting a thread to discuss deals on blank BD-R media...*** edit: I have done so: https://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=201702.0

OMG those Ritek BR-3 plexdiscs are garbage to my Samsung external USB-2 samsung 6x.
One good burn, and the rest fail verify on at least one file each!!
The more costly verbatim CMC IMe discs are great. No errors so far.


got me thinking about how to make sure that the burns are verifiable. Need to include a tested checksum on every burn, for later comparison!




OOPS did not mean to edit this but here we are. d'oh.

[voltronic]

Take a look at the second column on the licensee page. Verbatim is all over the place, and their discs are made by CMC Magnetics or Mitsubishi Chemical.

[morst]

Take a look at the second column on the licensee page. Verbatim is all over the place, and their discs are made by CMC Magnetics or Mitsubishi Chemical.

I searched for Verbatim...
LOL at VERBAT
thanks