[SOLVED] Best Archival Media?

[Jshowe]

I am struggling to find any talk about long term archival media. I feel like tape media is the densest with a good lifespan assuming temperature and humidity are regulated and no magnets are around but, I can't find much confirming that. All information I have found is quite out of date. A few of them mention Verbatim's UltraLife Gold Archival Grade DVDs (linked here). I have been unable to find an archival grade Blu-Ray. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I should use?

EDIT: Tape drives are far more expensive than I thought for some reason so, they aren't really a solution for me.

 

[USAFRet]

Define "long term".

I wouldn't trust any single media or copy to anything 'long term'.

 

[Jshowe]

I feel like 10 years would be reasonable in the grand scheme of things, I would refresh at that point. With that in mind maybe I should consider both tape and archival DVDs. I could store them in two different locations to protect from something like fire as well. I would use drives with a USB interface in hopes of that being somewhat relevant when I need them.

 

[USAFRet]

I feel like 10 years would be reasonable in the grand scheme of things, I would refresh at that point. With that in mind maybe I should consider both tape and archival DVDs. I could store them in two different locations to protect from something like fire as well. I would use drives with a USB interface in hopes of that being somewhat relevant when I need them.

10 years. And I would have another copy on a spinning hard drive, refreshed and verified every 6 months, and then the physical drive changed every 2-3 years.

What data will be on this?

I have data from some of my old systems, with files going back to the early 90's.
I wouldn't trust much to just sit on the shelf for a decade and hope it works.

 

[kanewolf]

I am struggling to find any talk about long term archival media. I feel like tape media is the densest with a good lifespan assuming temperature and humidity are regulated and no magnets are around but, I can't find much confirming that. All information I have found is quite out of date. A few of them mention Verbatim's UltraLife Gold Archival Grade DVDs (linked here). I have been unable to find an archival grade Blu-Ray. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I should use?

How much total space is required?
Amazon Glacier keeps multiple copies in multiple physical locations automatically. There is a monthly cost, but I believe that has the greatest probability of being around in 10 years.

 

[popatim]

I use BDR for yearly copies, & HDD's when needed for the semi regular backups. The trick with HDD's is to refresh the existing data on them occasionally to avoid bit-rot.
For truly long term storage there is M-disc (compatible with many burners) and Write once optical drives. Sony's ODA is still available I believe.

 

[Jshowe]

10 years. And I would have another copy on a spinning hard drive, refreshed and verified every 6 months, and then the physical drive changed every 2-3 years.

What data will be on this?

I have data from some of my old systems, with files going back to the early 90's.
I wouldn't trust much to just sit on the shelf for a decade and hope it works.

This will mostly be old family photos and videos. When you say refresh the data how would you do that?

 

[Jshowe]

How much total space is required?
Amazon Glacier keeps multiple copies in multiple physical locations automatically. There is a monthly cost, but I believe that has the greatest probability of being around in 10 years.

It does look affordable to upload and download but I do not want an endless monthly charge. Although it would be a nice extra piece of mind.

 

[USAFRet]

This will mostly be old family photos and videos. When you say refresh the data how would you do that?

Spin up the drive, copy the data out to something else, verify it is actually 'there', copy it back out to that drive.

How much data are we talking about?
The above mention of Amazon is a good idea. If you have Amazon Prime, unlimited photos is included.
(of course, that is not to be the only location)

 

[Jshowe]

I use BDR for yearly copies, & HDD's when needed for the semi regular backups. The trick with HDD's is to refresh the existing data on them occasionally to avoid bit-rot.
For truly long term storage there is M-disc (compatible with many burners) and Write once optical drives. Sony's ODA is still available I believe.

M-Disk looks like a much better solution than Verbatim's UltraLife since M-Disk can come in a Blu-Ray variant for much higher density. Sony's ODA is out of my price range.

 

[Jshowe]

Spin up the drive, copy the data out to something else, verify it is actually 'there', copy it back out to that drive.

How much data are we talking about?
The above mention of Amazon is a good idea. If you have Amazon Prime, unlimited photos is included.
(of course, that is not to be the only location)

I think about 500GB of data(Probably less). I will look into Amazon's unlimited photo storage. To use Amazon I would, however, need more than the basic 5GB of video storage. Either way, Amazon Photos seems like a good option now that you point that out.