Quote:
Originally Posted by traal
HTL BD-R and M-Disc DVD-R media should last a long time. LTH BD-R maybe not.
"Parchive" helps extend the life of optical media.
LTO (tape) also lasts a while if you aren't constantly reading or writing the tape.
Some say hard drives should be spun up every once in a while to keep them from seizing the next time you power them up.
RAID is good if you "scrub" it periodically.
Most importantly:
1. Store copies on at least two different media types to prevent all of your copies from degrading at the same time. Check each copy periodically and make a new copy as needed.
2. Keep copies in multiple locations in case of fire or theft.
|
Parchive and PAR are data recovery/redundancy methods and have nothing to do with the life expectancy of any type of backup media.
Tape and floppy disks have the longest (40+ years) track record of data integrity and recovery. Some tapes and floppies are still readable today, pre-dating consumer hard drives.
RAID never was and isn't backup. It's redundancy, as stated right in the the name:
Redundant Array of Independent Disks. A RAID setup still needs to be backed up.
+1 to your points about multiple copies stored in different locations. This is the ONLY way to (hopefully) ensure data recovery in the event of failure of the original devices.
To add, your backup is only as good as how often you do it. Monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, depending on how critical your data is to you.
Also, be aware of viruses like ransomware, which can infect anything connected to your computer at the time of the attack, including cloud storage.
Edit: Spinning up and checking your HDDs with a program like Crystaldiskinfo is a good idea to ensure the drive isn't going bad. It's also a good time to copy the data to an additional device or medium as an additional backup solution.