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What do people use for a shelf-stable backup (lemmy.nz)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have backups on a backup hard drive and also synced to B2, but I am thinking about backing up to some format to put in the cupboard.

The issue I see is that if I don't have a catastrophic failure and instead just accidentally delete some files one day while organising and don't realise, at some point the oldest backup state is removed and the files are gone.

The other thing is if I get hit by a bus and no one can work out how to decrypt a backup or whatever.

So I'm thinking of a plain old unencrypted copy of photos etc that anyone could find and use. Bonus points if I can just do a new CD or whatever each year with additions.

I have about 700GB of photos and videos which is the main content I'm concerned about. Do people use DVDs for this or is there something bigger? I am adding 60GB or more each year, would be nice to do one annual addition or something like that.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Is SSD really necessary? Everything I search up says SSDs have worse retention than HDD in cold storage. A couple TB of HDD is pretty cheap these days, and seems like a better cold storage option.

SSDs are by design less susceptible and more robust. No moving parts and able to work in much harsher conditions than hdds will ever be able to. The standard set by JEDEC requires every consumer ssd to have a 1 year data retention while powered off at 30 °C (I think). That's the minimum it has to archieve but usually they are better than that. Do not buy the cheapest thumb drives because they contain the all the crap that wasn't good enough to make ssds from it.
Btw you need to fire hdds up regularly too or the motor gets stuck. I think every 3-6 months was the recommendation.

Yes, so now I’m thinking a rotation cycle. About every 5 years replace the drives with new ones, copy over all data.

Don't make it flat every 5 years. Let a software monitor the SMART values of the drives and send notifications if the values indicate an increased change of a dying disc/ssd.

Does this matter if I have a SATA->USB cable stored with it?

Those are the first that fail, followed by the usb controller chip in the tray. Keep it as simple as possible. Removable trays are probably the best way but I'm not sure how much wear they can take.

Do not buy 2.5" drives. This class will die out soon™. There were no new hdds introduced in years and ssds are often replaced by M.2 ones because of the faster connection.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You are the first person who has recommended SSD for cold storage. Everyone else (including what I've googled) says HDD for cold storage, just spin up every year or two and they will be fine. Can you point me at further reading?

Don't worry, I'll SMART check the drives each year as I update as required.

As for types of drives dying out soon, I can reassess the situation every 5 years when I do drive replacement. I would be confident 2.5" drives will still be readable in 5 years.

[–] GameGod 2 points 1 day ago

Do not use an SSD for cold storage - it will fail. SSDs need to be plugged in every once to refresh the charge in their NAND, otherwise they'll lose the data.

This is not a theoretical thing - I've had a good Samsung 850 Pro drive fail while being off for 2 years.