Question flash drive or disk drive for backups?

[DLes]

I routinely do backups with disk drives. But the price of flash drives has dropped dramatically. Which is best to use for routine backups? There have been several articles addressing this, but they aren't very useful. They say that, hey, big flash drives are expensive! They're not. They say that, hey, flash drives are slow! USB3 drives may not be. They say that, hey, you can lose a tiny flash drive! Um, I'm not taking them anywhere. It is true that flash drives take up a lot less space, and do not depend on mechanical bearings.

Preferences? We're talking about system clone backups - 100 GB or more.

 

[hang-the-9]

Flash drives, unless specifically listed as durable long term use, are probably the least reliable modern storage media. The USB connections fail, the memory storage fails at a higher rate than other medial.

For backups standard drives are the best. Even SSDs are not as good since they can lose the data if not connected to power after a while (a long while as in a few years, but they still can have data loss).

There has been years of already known info about this, nothing new has come out recently to change anything.

 

[DLes]

Well, OK. But there seems to be some controversy about that. That is (as in the post I referenced) people are RECOMMENDING that they be used for archival storage. How do you recognize a flash drive that is listed as durable for long term use. Never seen that specification.

 

[USAFRet]

Well, OK. But there seems to be some controversy about that. That is (as in the post I referenced) people are RECOMMENDING that they be used for archival storage. How do you recognize a flash drive that is listed as durable for long term use. Never seen that specification.

One blog article talking about them as an option.
Not necessarily as "the best".

 

[DLes]

I gave you the URL to one article. There are many. Just google "flash drives" and "archiving".

The one I referenced (which was written in the last few months by someone who appears to have some expertise) says
"If you don’t need to back up or archive terabytes of data, then USB flash storage may be an excellent option for you."
Not just an "option", an "excellent option".

I'm not saying that you're wrong, just that for such an important task as archiving, it is surprising how much controversy there is on this point.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm just saying...I personally wouldn't.
And I raelly wouldn't leave an archive always connected to the USB hub.

 

[DLes]

I appreciate your confidence, but there are others who say otherwise.

I said I was leaving backup devices connected to a hub. I have other backup devices that are not. Certainly there is zero reason to keep archives connected to a hub.

 

[hang-the-9]

I gave you the URL to one article. There are many. Just google "flash drives" and "archiving".

The one I referenced (which was written in the last few months by someone who appears to have some expertise) says
"If you don’t need to back up or archive terabytes of data, then USB flash storage may be an excellent option for you."
Not just an "option", an "excellent option".

I'm not saying that you're wrong, just that for such an important task as archiving, it is surprising how much controversy there is on this point.

I don't think any of the articles would be talking about the stability of the media. Flash drives are cheap, easy to find and easy to use, and small so no issues about keeping a bunch in a drawer or carrying with you, so yes there are reasons they are good for backups. Just like if you are hungry and broke then a value burger from a fast food place would be a good option. But not every day for 2 years. Me, and the other moderators spend years working on computer equipment, I'm not following some article, I'm following what I have personally seen over 30 years of dealing with computers.

If you use a flash drive for a backup, then stick it in a drawer it will have an OK reliability over time, the more it's used, it's more likely to fail than any other modern media I can think of. A lot of posts on here about either the flash memory going bad or the USB part going bad.

Flash drives are best for short term storage, say copying files back and forth between systems, sending some media or setup files to a customer, quick use backups when you are doing a new OS setup, keeping some image files on hand. I use them all the time for installing operating systems and create images for systems, but I still keep a copy of the images on a normal external drive.

 

[DLes]

Be careful. We're talking about archiving and backups. Two VERY different things. In talking about archiving EVERYONE is talking about stability of the media. I am told that flash drives ought to be trustworthy for something like a decade. Everyone says that. So my archiving strategy would be to rewrite every few years. If I do a backup once every day, who cares if the backup won't last a week.

Again, I'm not saying anyone is wrong. I'm just saying the advice on this point is quite conflicting. Most the the sources I find say, eh, HDD, flash drive, SSD, they're all sorta OK! Oooh, flash drives are conveniently small but the main reason not to use them is because you can lose them easily. Duh? Oooh, you can write to a HDD a zillion times and it'll STILL be good! Duh? But what I'm hearing here is that it's a lot more complicated than that.