this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
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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 2 days 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.