[DM-MUG] long-term data storage

[Douglas]

Neither of these is as simple as just mirroring a drive but they each  
have other advantages. I use both because - If you can't make it  
reliable then you make it redundant.

The first is magneto optical disks for near-line storage. The  
principle of operation makes them well suited to archival storage but  
only 5.2gigs per disk (two sided) so you still have a lot of disks to  
store/protect.

The other is a multi-drive RAID 5 array that has a built in  
controller. Enterprise grade SCSI-to-SCSI systems can now be had  
inexpensively on eBay as long as you can live with U160 or even  
Ultra-2. You get the benefits of RAID 5, the only hardware required  
for your system is an appropriate host bus adapter (not a RAID card  
since it lives in the RAID canister), and the only significant cost  
will be the cost of new or at least reliable drives for the RAID system.

Best, Doug


On Aug 22, 2006, at 10:03 AM, I thought that I heard Darcy Baston say:

> I keep hearing horror stories about CDR/DVDR type media losing its  
> data within months to years, and have lost some data myself from  
> disks that seemed to have its data evaporate. Well, when I say  
> evaporate I mean within months, files that could open one month  
> were unreadable in the next etc.
>
> Someone told me that the organic nature of DVD/CD R media  
> interracts very easily with the air and the foam in the soft sleeve  
> multipak media holders. You know the kind that look like binders  
> with pages of pockets? I'm not sure if this is true, but the all  
> this information and experience has led me to believe that if I  
> really want to archive something for 5-10 years, optical is not the  
> way go.
>
> I've considered using hard drives, but those devices are on shorter  
> borrowed time. I've had a good track record, getting a hard drive  
> to last at least 5 years, but I need to go past that with some  
> confidence.
>
> So, my next bit of research is going to be on other solutions  
> including tape. While looking up stuff, I discovered Iomega had a  
> cartridge solution called the Iomega Rev. I know it's an  
> independent motor hard drive cartridge solution, but they claim  
> their 35GB media will hold information for 30 years. I'm assuming  
> that's in a vacuum, but surely in a dry cool environment I can get  
> 10 years out of it?
>
> Are there any other solutions I should/could be looking at? Does  
> anyone have any personal experience with the goal of long-term data  
> storage?
>
> Thanks!
> Darcy
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