Question Best solution for portable long term storage

[m3gad3ga]

I am moving countries and want to go through my hundreds of CDs from early 2000's, I'm curious what the best solution for storage is. I've been eyeing the viper 4tb 4300 m.2 drive with either a normal enclosure or with a fan to store everything but have two concerns.

Heat and long term storage. I read that if not active data could vanish?

Would a 2.5 SSD like the Samsung t7 be a better solution for longevity?

 

[USAFRet]

1. Spinning hard drive
and
2. Multiple copies, on multiple devices. Data that exists on only one device can be said to not exist at all.

 

[m3gad3ga]

Spinning hard drives are what I dumped a couple days ago. Too much weight, I am moving countries. Multiple SSD copies will work or one big HDD with cloud backups?

 

[kanewolf]

Spinning hard drives are what I dumped a couple days ago. Too much weight, I am moving countries. Multiple SSD copies will work or one big HDD with cloud backups?

How many TB of data?

 

[CelicaGT]

I keep 2 HDD copies, one onsite, one offsite, and multiple flash copies onsite for convenience. My main portable flash drive is a 2TB NVMe in a small enclosure. I do use some cloud storage but mostly it's a convenience, not for actual long term. Multiple copies is best, consider Flash as short term, HDD long term.

 

[Misgar]

Spinning hard drives are what I dumped a couple days ago. Too much weight, I am moving countries.

Does that mean you're limited to just one suitcase weighing 22kg and a 7kg hand bag (typical weight limit on some flights)?

When my relatives moved country, they hired space in a shipping container and took many of their personal belongings, but left big objects like furniture and kitchen white goods behind.

How many TB of data?

If we assume FLAC rips at up to 350MB per audio CD (half typical 700MB maximum capacity) and 400 audio discs that's only 140GB data. Even with 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV, you'd need up to 280GB for 400 CDs.

If they're SACD, you'd definitely need Terabytes of storage at 4.7GB or 8.5GB per single/dual layer SACD.

A handful of 256GB or 512GB USB memory sticks or portable SSDs should be enough for ordinary CD rips. I'd make at least three copies on separate devices.

MP3 rips might fit on a 32GB memory stick if the MP3 tracks are one tenth the size of WAV files, e.g. 280GB WAV / 10 = 28GB MP3 @ 400 CDs.

When ripping an entire CD collection and disposing of the discs, the purists might argue you should use AccurateRip software such as Exact Audio Copy, to ensure the best quality possible with the fewest errors.
https://www.accuraterip.com/
https://www.exactaudiocopy.org/

Probably not worth the effort if you're just ripping to MP3. EAC copies can take a long time when ripping old CDs, e.g. up to 60 minutes for a dodgy 30 year old CD.

If you don't have the time or the patience for a full EAC rip, you can always perform a quick and dirty rip taking 5 to 8 minutes. You probably won't hear the difference.

 

[m3gad3ga]

How many TB of data?

Maybe 10 to 12 TB. It's not only cd's but basically everything I have right now. Basically selling my PC's and will build new machines in Europe.

 

[USAFRet]

Maybe 10 to 12 TB. It's not only cd's but basically everything I have right now. Basically selling my PC's and will build new machines in Europe.

2 full copies (not RAID), on 2x HDDs.

 

[m3gad3ga]

Does that mean you're limited to just one suitcase weighing 22kg and a 7kg hand bag (typical weight limit on some flights)?

When my relatives moved country, they hired space in a shipping container and took many of their personal belongings, but left big objects like furniture and kitchen white goods behind.


If we assume FLAC rips at up to 350MB per audio CD (half typical 700MB maximum capacity) and 400 audio discs that's only 140GB data. Even with 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV, you'd need up to 280GB for 400 CDs.

If they're SACD, you'd definitely need Terabytes of storage at 4.7GB or 8.5GB per single/dual layer SACD.

A handful of 256GB or 512GB USB memory sticks or portable SSDs should be enough for ordinary CD rips. I'd make at least three copies on separate devices.

MP3 rips might fit on a 32GB memory stick if the MP3 tracks are one tenth the size of WAV files, e.g. 280GB WAV / 10 = 28GB MP3 @ 400 CDs.

When ripping an entire CD collection and disposing of the discs, the purists might argue you should use AccurateRip software such as Exact Audio Copy, to ensure the best quality possible with the fewest errors.
https://www.accuraterip.com/
https://www.exactaudiocopy.org/

Probably not worth the effort if you're just ripping to MP3. EAC copies can take a long time when ripping old CDs, e.g. up to 60 minutes for a dodgy 30 year old CD.

If you don't have the time or the patience for a full EAC rip, you can always perform a quick and dirty rip taking 5 to 8 minutes. You probably won't hear the difference.

Need to do research on the container but we opted for cheaper method of just dumping as much as possible and rebuying at location. I think I threw out 8 2tb wd blacks, couple greens. After discussing with you guys I'm eyeing some nas hdd'e now, possibly buying 2x 12tb ironwolf pro CMR drives or the Seagate exos 20tb. What do you guys think

 

[USAFRet]

After discussing with you guys I'm eyeing some nas hdd'e now, possibly buying 2x 12tb ironwolf pro CMR drives or the Seagate exos 20tb. What do you guys think

Either will work, or maybe one of each.
As long as there are multiple copies of your data.

I have 4x 4TB Ironwolfs in a pod attached to my NAS, currently 65k running hours.
Zero defect.