Long term backup drive - Best HDD ? SSD Vs HDD ?

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Amyrro

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Oct 23, 2015
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Hello everyone

I am planning get some hard drives to use them a long-term back-up storage medium, and I was wondering which type of drives is the best for the job. I may keep some files in the drives and store them for a few years to come, while others may be used a back-up media, with continuous writing and backing-up. I prefer to get WD drives, as I trust them based on my previous experience with them, as well as with some other brands. I thought about the WD purple, which is optimized for continuous non-stop recording of video.

Q.1 - However, in the following video, the presenter claims that these drives as optimized for continuous writing, rather than the ordinary reading/writing function of storage drives. How true is that ?!

Q.2 - What about the NAS drives and the WD black ?!

How would the WD black HDDs be different than the NAS Red Pro, NAS Re HDD or Purple HDD, other than ruggedness of the NAS HDD build & the way NAS drives handle errors ?! Especially that all of these drives have 5 years of warranty, except to Purple HDD (3 years).

Q.3 - Under normal use conditions, will the NAS drives be more durable as back-up media than the normal black or purple HDD ?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcusVd3nf7w


I found some folks online claiming that HDDs are more durable and long lasting than SSDs, especially in terms of failure, performance deterioration due to writing, and performance decline over time (including Linus from Linus Tech Tips in one of his videos, but I forgot which one).

Q.4 - How true is that, and which type of drive would last longer ?!

The presenters of the following video claim the opposite.

Q.5 - How suitable and durable are SSDs for long-term back-up ?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiK98Rt7LAo


Sorry for the long thread & thanks in advance

Regards
 
Solution
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Yeah, Hard Drives would be the best option for long-term storage

CDs are best but Hard Drives would work great too

Sorry for responding so late
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Id go HDD for backups. Capacity is still so much cheaper and id only want to go intel, crucial or samsung 850 ssds.

Ive got WD black for single drive back up. Their NAS & enterprise drives are meant for raid arrays, not single use. Also, Blacks aren't meant for arrays.

If left on a shelf id want to spin it up once every 18 months or so. Not sure how crucial that is but just to prevent the spindle from sticking.
 
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Thanks for your reply

Aside form the price, how do SSDs compare to HDDs in terms of long term reliability ?!

Aren't NAS & enterprise drives built to be more durable than normal HDDs ?!

Thanks again

Regards

 
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I'm no expert, but I do know that modern SSDs are a lot more reliable than hard drives

They are more expensive though

That video that you linked is old, back when SSDs weren't as reliable

SSDs are more expensive though, and they have to be powered on every once in a while or else the data can be lost (although, as long as the SSD is stored at room temp then the requirement is only about once every year to make sure the data isn't lost)

So... SSDs are a lot more reliable, but more expensive

But yeah, it takes A LOT of writes to cause an SSD to fail

http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead
 
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Hello Mr. Bryman

Thanks for your reply

I would like to ask about the reliability of SSDs in terms of storage. Wouldn't a mechanical hard drive last for longer time with the data saved in it than an SSD ?! As far as I know, the usual problems that mechanical HDDs suffer from in terms of long term inactivity are related to the mechanical operation (movement of the reading/reading head, spinning of the spindle, and so on). However, electronically, I am not sure how they compare to SSDs in terms of keeping the data non-lost and unaffected for a very long time of inactivity.

Thanks again
Regards

Amyrro
 
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Thanks for your reply mate
 
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SSDs are the best form for storage, because they only degrade when writing, and even at that their predictions are longer than our own lifespans.
However, you'd be best buying cheap HDD bulk storage for now, then upgrading to SSDs when they become more financially viable. This of course depends on how much you want to store and for how long.
 
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Sorry, no CD, it is most unreliable if comparing with SSD and HDD. After a few years, no mater how good brand was CD or DVD(also special for photo storage CD) stored at room temperature, tend to be partly or almost unreadable! Gold rule two copies of data is must have! Maybe someone will accept my experience for good.
 
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I'm doing research on this myself and came across this thread. From what I've read here, it seems like HDD still are a better choice for long term storage (+10years) as SSD's have the ability to loose information as the electric charge slowly dissipates.
https://www.ontrack.com/blog/2016/05/19/hdds-vs-ssds/

At the same time I've had the motor in some older 2.5" HDD's die completely making the data inaccessible.

In terms of safest way to store data, I think putting it on stable media with no moving parts is probably the best. With that in mind, Blu-ray discs seem like they would be the best choice at this point with the ability to burn 128GB at a time. By keeping the media the data is stored on modular, the discs are even more durable than an HDD platter without being encased with the motor, so if your Blu-ray drive dies you can buy a new "motor" to read the disc and keep the data accessible.

The only down side is of course is the data is un-editable once you burn it, transfer speeds are slower, and you lose convenience of access. With an HDD or SDD, you can plug the drive directly into a computer and index the contents quickly making it more practical if you actually want to access the data on a regular basis.

One other possible benefit of Blu-ray is that since it is not attached to the drive, the ability to upgrade the drive is possible. So if they create a faster standard than USB 3.1 or say Lightning Bolt, and they produce a Blu-ray drive to match, transfer speeds accessing your archived data could increase.

Just some thoughts :)
 
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