Offsite Storage for Amateurs
August 28, 2010 2:59 AM Subscribe
For a home user, what is the best storage medium for backup files to be left at an offsite location? Portable Harddrive, USB drive, SD Card, burnt DVDs?
I have about 13GB of pictures on my harddrive, and would like to keep a copy at my parents house. I would update it infrequently, probably every 3-6 months. What should I buy that will easily cope with being left to collect dust in a cupboard for long periods?
I have about 13GB of pictures on my harddrive, and would like to keep a copy at my parents house. I would update it infrequently, probably every 3-6 months. What should I buy that will easily cope with being left to collect dust in a cupboard for long periods?
Look into Jungle Disk (Amazon S3), Mozy or similar.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:39 AM on August 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:39 AM on August 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
DVD option may be simple but I had bad experiences with some DVD burning formats not being standard and some computers not being able to read it. Maybe you will need to try out a specific format.
If you have unlimited data broadband package then you may want to go for an online version sich as Jungle Disk, Mozy, as above). My personal favourite is Dropbox which has the most seamless sync (2GB free), Microsoft Live (5GB free), Sugar Sync (2GB free) and many other if you are willing to use Gladinet.
posted by london302 at 4:13 AM on August 28, 2010
If you have unlimited data broadband package then you may want to go for an online version sich as Jungle Disk, Mozy, as above). My personal favourite is Dropbox which has the most seamless sync (2GB free), Microsoft Live (5GB free), Sugar Sync (2GB free) and many other if you are willing to use Gladinet.
posted by london302 at 4:13 AM on August 28, 2010
Best answer: Gold archival MAM-A DVD-Rs. The environmental test chamber routines (covered under some ISO) suggest a century of life. Verify when burning, perform a binary comparison, perhaps using Beyond Compare, after burning, and you should be good.
I have never had one go bad or burned a coaster, and I have been through a few hundred of them.
posted by adipocere at 4:48 AM on August 28, 2010
I have never had one go bad or burned a coaster, and I have been through a few hundred of them.
posted by adipocere at 4:48 AM on August 28, 2010
Best answer: Somewhat depends on how much data you wish to archive. 13GB of pictures makes me think of decentralization. Buy two 500gb hard drives and store them in separate locations. But make sure it's the solid state flash drives, not the kind that spin up - they don't last as long.
If you go with gold "archival" discs, still do some research. Not all are made the same. Some have a thin gold layer, some have gold coloring (!), some have scratch protection, gold layer, and all sorts of other bells & whistles.
Alternatively, buy several thumb drives; they're very cheap and a very easy way to avoid keeping all your eggs in one basket.
Name or number whatever you do with a brief list of contents printed out and stuck to it, or near it.
posted by carlh at 5:26 AM on August 28, 2010
If you go with gold "archival" discs, still do some research. Not all are made the same. Some have a thin gold layer, some have gold coloring (!), some have scratch protection, gold layer, and all sorts of other bells & whistles.
Alternatively, buy several thumb drives; they're very cheap and a very easy way to avoid keeping all your eggs in one basket.
Name or number whatever you do with a brief list of contents printed out and stuck to it, or near it.
posted by carlh at 5:26 AM on August 28, 2010
Best answer: USB drives are notoriously flaky.
Being risk-averse, I do the DVD thing and the off-site portable hard drive thing, though I don't update the off-site drive as often as I told myself I would when I started that routine. The hard drive is a mirror of the entire contents of my computer. If my house burned down, I could buy a new computer, out that drive in it, and have everything back the way t was as of my last backup in 5 minutes. -- the DVD's are just the most important data - RAW files, AIFF files, etc. since burning them is time-consuming.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:34 AM on August 28, 2010
Being risk-averse, I do the DVD thing and the off-site portable hard drive thing, though I don't update the off-site drive as often as I told myself I would when I started that routine. The hard drive is a mirror of the entire contents of my computer. If my house burned down, I could buy a new computer, out that drive in it, and have everything back the way t was as of my last backup in 5 minutes. -- the DVD's are just the most important data - RAW files, AIFF files, etc. since burning them is time-consuming.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:34 AM on August 28, 2010
I use 2 offsite regular HDs, with a single HD USB enclosure for reading/writing when necessary. Cheap, simple, and might still be a readable technology in 50 years.
posted by signal at 6:46 AM on August 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by signal at 6:46 AM on August 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
What about something like CrashPlan? Free offsite backup to a HD plugged into your parents' computer, plus you can backup to the cloud if you want too, for extra redundancy.
posted by misterbrandt at 10:25 AM on August 28, 2010
posted by misterbrandt at 10:25 AM on August 28, 2010
Two identical external hard drives with the same name. Each time you go to your parents house, swap the drive you're keeping there.
Hard drives are cheap these days, so you might as well buy two big ones and back up everything. That way, even if there's a fire and your home burns to the ground, you won't lose any of your data. I recently found a 2TB drive at Office Depot for $120. Sweet!
I swear by SuperDuper! for my backups. I have it set to backup every night at midnight.
posted by 2oh1 at 10:31 AM on August 28, 2010
Hard drives are cheap these days, so you might as well buy two big ones and back up everything. That way, even if there's a fire and your home burns to the ground, you won't lose any of your data. I recently found a 2TB drive at Office Depot for $120. Sweet!
I swear by SuperDuper! for my backups. I have it set to backup every night at midnight.
posted by 2oh1 at 10:31 AM on August 28, 2010
If the photos would be enjoyed by your parents, why not a digital photo frame that comes with a USB?
posted by Ideefixe at 11:23 AM on August 28, 2010
posted by Ideefixe at 11:23 AM on August 28, 2010
For long peroids, I'm going to side with those suggesting optical (dvd, bluray). When you're talking about a decade or longer, there are simply too many points of failure for HDs and solid state USB. When storing optical discs for long peroids, be sure to keep them secured in a dry area (like a safe or similar).
posted by samsara at 11:34 AM on August 28, 2010
posted by samsara at 11:34 AM on August 28, 2010
Best answer: Data point: I just tried to retrieve a whole load of data off about fifty 3-8 year old CDRs and DVDRs, and had about an 80% success rate. One of the unreadable DVDRs I was able to read after leaving it in the freezer overnight (wrapped in plastic). Another unreadable DVDR got stuck in my Mac Mini's drive which meant I had to pull the machine apart to get it out. The rest are coasters.
Of the ones that did work, copying could be VERY slow (<1>
Personally, I'd go with multiple copies on seperate portable USB 2.5" hard drives.
posted by Diag at 9:50 PM on August 28, 2010
Of the ones that did work, copying could be VERY slow (<1>
Personally, I'd go with multiple copies on seperate portable USB 2.5" hard drives.
posted by Diag at 9:50 PM on August 28, 2010
errr... that (<1> was supposed to indicate "less than 1 MB/second"
posted by Diag at 9:52 PM on August 28, 2010
posted by Diag at 9:52 PM on August 28, 2010
Go for redundancy and use two of your options - ie DVDs plus one of your other choices. Given the small amount of data involved, it won't cost you much extra, but it'll give you a lot of extra peace of mind.
posted by Ahab at 9:53 PM on August 28, 2010
posted by Ahab at 9:53 PM on August 28, 2010
kalessin: "I have a friend who rips terabytes of DVDs and Blu-rays. His backup solution is stripped (oem) drives and one of those USB drive plugging adapters or possibly a NAS-y disk array with hot-swapping (though getting the latter right for quick backups and quick media removal would be tricky)."
I'm officially confused!
"stripped (oem) drives" is simply the drive (minus box, packaging, etc.) in an anti-static bag, right? You don't mean "striped" (as in RAID 0) do you?
"He makes copies to spare spindles, takes the spindles away and then socks them in a closet in another location of the house. He says he finds these to be better for long-term storage than optical media."
"better than optical media" WTH? Isn't that the type of media that he buys on the spindles and then backs up his data upon? How can spindles of optical media "be better than optical media?
Little help, please?
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 10:00 PM on August 28, 2010
I'm officially confused!
"stripped (oem) drives" is simply the drive (minus box, packaging, etc.) in an anti-static bag, right? You don't mean "striped" (as in RAID 0) do you?
"He makes copies to spare spindles, takes the spindles away and then socks them in a closet in another location of the house. He says he finds these to be better for long-term storage than optical media."
"better than optical media" WTH? Isn't that the type of media that he buys on the spindles and then backs up his data upon? How can spindles of optical media "be better than optical media?
Little help, please?
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 10:00 PM on August 28, 2010
If you want archival-grade optical media, it looks like you had better be prepared to pay. Yikes!
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 10:47 PM on August 28, 2010
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 10:47 PM on August 28, 2010
Five years ago the archival standard was removable disc (CD/DVD). Been out of the field since then so I'm not sure if it's the same now.
posted by Mertonian at 9:29 AM on August 29, 2010
posted by Mertonian at 9:29 AM on August 29, 2010
Low RPM SATA drive is the industry standard for long term archiving, it's slowly replacing tapes.
I'm happy with Mozy. $5 a month for unlimited storage (per computer), crazy data encryption, colocation data centers, and if your house explodes, they'll mail you all your data on DVDs.
posted by phritosan at 11:38 AM on August 31, 2010
I'm happy with Mozy. $5 a month for unlimited storage (per computer), crazy data encryption, colocation data centers, and if your house explodes, they'll mail you all your data on DVDs.
posted by phritosan at 11:38 AM on August 31, 2010
kalessin: "InsertNiftyNameHere, I think you are confused by my terminology. In the IT (systems engineering) industry, we often use the term "spindle" to refer to hard disk drives. ... So to speak in plainer English, my friend rips many movies in DVD or Blu-ray format to his hard disks, which he buys OEM."
Ah, OK, thanks for that. I get it now. I was pretty sure you were talking about regular HDDs, but, as you correctly spotted, I was thrown off by the term "spindle." I'm certainly aware that a spindle is part of a HDD, but I've only heard it used as a standalone term as a blank optical media holder. Now I know some more lingo.
I always wondered, though. If you keep your backup HDDs in a metal vault, what if someone places a large speaker magnet on the side of the vault? Won't the magnet's field wipe out the data on the HDD? (Maybe that's next week's AskMe question.)
Thanks!!
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 4:22 PM on September 1, 2010
Ah, OK, thanks for that. I get it now. I was pretty sure you were talking about regular HDDs, but, as you correctly spotted, I was thrown off by the term "spindle." I'm certainly aware that a spindle is part of a HDD, but I've only heard it used as a standalone term as a blank optical media holder. Now I know some more lingo.
I always wondered, though. If you keep your backup HDDs in a metal vault, what if someone places a large speaker magnet on the side of the vault? Won't the magnet's field wipe out the data on the HDD? (Maybe that's next week's AskMe question.)
Thanks!!
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 4:22 PM on September 1, 2010
kalessin: "wiping magnetic media than a fixed field magnet like a speaker magnet."
Wow! You read my mind! I have a big honkin' 20 oz magnet that I salvaged (without destroying) from an old Jensen 3-way 6"x9" car stereo speaker years ago that is hanging on my fridge, so that is exactly what I was thinking of. I've always wondered what it would do to a hard drive.
That was some outstanding info you provided. Thanks very, very much for that.
I guess I'll just have to do some tinkering with a HDD I don't mind killing and whatever various magnetic fields I can generate. I remember seeing a video where a guy degaussed a computer monitor using the electromagnetic field generated by a soldering gun so I'll have to add that to my speaker magnet to play around with on an old HDD.
Thanks again!
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 10:42 PM on September 4, 2010
Wow! You read my mind! I have a big honkin' 20 oz magnet that I salvaged (without destroying) from an old Jensen 3-way 6"x9" car stereo speaker years ago that is hanging on my fridge, so that is exactly what I was thinking of. I've always wondered what it would do to a hard drive.
That was some outstanding info you provided. Thanks very, very much for that.
I guess I'll just have to do some tinkering with a HDD I don't mind killing and whatever various magnetic fields I can generate. I remember seeing a video where a guy degaussed a computer monitor using the electromagnetic field generated by a soldering gun so I'll have to add that to my speaker magnet to play around with on an old HDD.
Thanks again!
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 10:42 PM on September 4, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by phearlez at 3:34 AM on August 28, 2010