External storage for family videos
September 18, 2024 7:15 AM Subscribe
Hi there, for Christmas I would like to give my parents something (external hard drive??) to which they can add videos of their grandkids.
The goal isn't for them to be able to watch the videos regularly now, but to have them in one place, in a format they are likely to be able to access in 10-15 years when the baby years seem forever ago. Right now they store things locally on a few devices or google photos.
They are about as tech savvy as your average millennial when it comes to this kind of thing, so if it's something I can figure out they can too.
What do you recommend? Thanks!
The goal isn't for them to be able to watch the videos regularly now, but to have them in one place, in a format they are likely to be able to access in 10-15 years when the baby years seem forever ago. Right now they store things locally on a few devices or google photos.
They are about as tech savvy as your average millennial when it comes to this kind of thing, so if it's something I can figure out they can too.
What do you recommend? Thanks!
Best answer: Our family keeps a communal Dropbox we call The Vault. The free tier is 2GB, but we pay $10 USD per month for 2TB.
It contains pictures/videos as well as family trees, interviews with parents about their lives, medical histories (is their any history of _____ in your family?) and generally anything we think will be interesting for future generations.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:56 AM on September 18 [4 favorites]
It contains pictures/videos as well as family trees, interviews with parents about their lives, medical histories (is their any history of _____ in your family?) and generally anything we think will be interesting for future generations.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:56 AM on September 18 [4 favorites]
Best answer: The goal isn't for them to be able to watch the videos regularly now, but to have them in one place, in a format they are likely to be able to access in 10-15 years when the baby years seem forever ago.
What's your plan for backups, and migrating/updating the machine when things break or are obsoleted? A cloud storage solution may cost more over time, but may make sense from a maintenance perspective.
posted by zamboni at 8:00 AM on September 18 [2 favorites]
What's your plan for backups, and migrating/updating the machine when things break or are obsoleted? A cloud storage solution may cost more over time, but may make sense from a maintenance perspective.
posted by zamboni at 8:00 AM on September 18 [2 favorites]
Best answer: in a format they are likely to be able to access in 10-15 years when the baby years seem forever ago
The key to still having the files in 10-15 years is to have the files backed up in multiple locations. An external drive is one location, and it's fine for that to be the place where they store their photos and videos for easy access. But what happens if that fails, or is damaged or stolen? You need things backed up to an external location (e.g. cloud storage) as well. And if that cloud provider gets hacked or goes out of business?
You need to balance the amount of effort you go to to back things up against how much the total loss of those photos and videos would mean.
posted by pipeski at 8:02 AM on September 18 [2 favorites]
The key to still having the files in 10-15 years is to have the files backed up in multiple locations. An external drive is one location, and it's fine for that to be the place where they store their photos and videos for easy access. But what happens if that fails, or is damaged or stolen? You need things backed up to an external location (e.g. cloud storage) as well. And if that cloud provider gets hacked or goes out of business?
You need to balance the amount of effort you go to to back things up against how much the total loss of those photos and videos would mean.
posted by pipeski at 8:02 AM on September 18 [2 favorites]
Unlisted YouTube videos? That way you don't have to worry about which format to store videos in and they're accessible anywhere.
posted by alby at 9:23 AM on September 18
posted by alby at 9:23 AM on September 18
nthing the multiple copies idea - but an external copy can be a drive (HDD, external SSD, or even a flash drive) stored in their safety deposit box at the bank. A 3rd copy on flash drive can be nice too - many televisions now have a USB port for playing media; a flash drive is a bit less clutter when plugged into the back of the TV than a drive with a cable.
posted by TimHare at 9:29 AM on September 18
posted by TimHare at 9:29 AM on September 18
Best answer: Let me add that hard drives and flash drives are not good long-term storage options. Failure rates for hard drives go way up after 5-10 years. You'll need to copy the data onto new drives periodically to avoid losing data.
Online services also aren't necessarily reliable. Sure, it's fairly unlikely that YouTube is going to go away in the next 15-20 years but how sure are you that you'll still have access to your Google/YouTube account in that timeframe? And it's not just forgetting your password that's the risk. Maybe there's some music in the background and YouTube deletes it for "copyright violation." Or maybe the account gets flagged as malicious by some automated process and you lose it that way.
As others have said, you need multiple kinds of media and multiple locations.
posted by davybyrne at 10:26 AM on September 18 [3 favorites]
Online services also aren't necessarily reliable. Sure, it's fairly unlikely that YouTube is going to go away in the next 15-20 years but how sure are you that you'll still have access to your Google/YouTube account in that timeframe? And it's not just forgetting your password that's the risk. Maybe there's some music in the background and YouTube deletes it for "copyright violation." Or maybe the account gets flagged as malicious by some automated process and you lose it that way.
As others have said, you need multiple kinds of media and multiple locations.
posted by davybyrne at 10:26 AM on September 18 [3 favorites]
A few months ago I needed to print something at Office Depot and they didn't have a computer capable of reading an SD card.
Don't be me. Avoid physical media.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:09 PM on September 18
Don't be me. Avoid physical media.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:09 PM on September 18
Just for comparison (not necessarily great or perfect) every Monday I backup my files to my NAS, to an extra set of hard drives in the Windows machine (i.e., more than was necessary for my needs) then over Samba to the Ubuntu machine and its shared drives, then to 4TB Western Digital My Passport USB3 drive, then it does a backup to Dropbox of things I consider very important (primarily the software and settings needed to bring my Windows computer back from a total failure... this was unintentionally verified in March 2024 when that actually happened) plus anything I would not want to lose such as scanned family photos, etc. Also anything I want in Dropbox but is sensitive info I put inside a Veracrypt container before putting in Dropbox.
The My Passport drive is stored inside a Faraday bag inside a strong box along with its custom USB3 cable (thanks for reminding me user Tell Me No Lies, I was storing a cable with each WD external drive but had not mentioned it in this answer until I did a Preview).
Also:
- the WD My Passport backups are rotated every 3 months to Safe Deposit Box (extra expense but worth it IMO)
- after you create a backup go pick some random files to open to make sure the backup is working (listen to an mp3, watch part of an mp4, open a spreadsheet, look at some photos).
posted by forthright at 1:24 PM on September 18
The My Passport drive is stored inside a Faraday bag inside a strong box along with its custom USB3 cable (thanks for reminding me user Tell Me No Lies, I was storing a cable with each WD external drive but had not mentioned it in this answer until I did a Preview).
Also:
- the WD My Passport backups are rotated every 3 months to Safe Deposit Box (extra expense but worth it IMO)
- after you create a backup go pick some random files to open to make sure the backup is working (listen to an mp3, watch part of an mp4, open a spreadsheet, look at some photos).
posted by forthright at 1:24 PM on September 18
Best answer: Why not just pay for cloud storage? It's cheap and Apple or Google aren't going anywhere. Backups are handled and there's no need to worry about physical media.
posted by dobbs at 6:28 PM on September 18
posted by dobbs at 6:28 PM on September 18
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posted by briank at 7:32 AM on September 18 [1 favorite]