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  1. So I'm working on a few projects right now and i'm trying to figure out the best way to archive my audio. I've found it to be good to back up media in a tertairy system:

    1) The primary storage is the most accessed.
    2) The secondary is used only if the primary fails.
    3) The tertiary is used is never used unless both of the first two medias have failed.

    For film my system is:

    1) Primary-Hard drive. It's easy to access and use.
    2) Secondary-Blu-Ray Data Disc. In case I need to make space and this certain project will not be in use for a while.
    3) Tertiary-Original Print. Thus far a majority of my projects are still filmed on motion picture stock and if it is only used for telecining and carefully stored, it'll outlive me.

    So as you can see my system for video is fine for now, but I still have an issue with audio. I was thinking of having a high end analog tape media for my third audio source. Perhaps .25" reel to reel or Type IV tape? I don't think I can afford a 1" reel to reel machine. Or maybe I should do a digi source like DAT? Thoughts?
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  2. Banned
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    Tapes are awful candidates for long term storage. ALL types of tape degrade with time, even without any use and under ideal storage conditions. Just ask people in the music industry about that. I find your idea that motion picture stock will outlive you to be rather interesting. If you're planning on kicking off in less than 10 years then you're probably right. If you have read any of the stories I have about how difficult it is to get audio off the 1960s 35mm recording that was done by Everest and then Mercury Living Presence, well, you might not be so enthused about it. In some cases with Mercury recordings they had to use the 3 track tape "emergency" copy recorded at the same time because the 35mm film stock could not be salvaged.

    There are some indications that solid state drives may be good choices for archiving. Mean time between failure on some of the newer models is now over 1 million hours. Be warned that if you're going to have any problems with solid state drives it seems to happen pretty early. Most people don't have any issues, but I've read reviews where some customers just simply got bad ones that escaped quality control and those tend to fail fairly quickly.
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  3. Thanks for the reply.

    Interesting, perhaps SSD is the way to go for a third source.

    In response to the film comment. I didn't mean that the audio on the film would survive I meant that the image would. And yes that is proven ask anyone. I have film that has been properly stored since dating back to 1932 and it looks just like it did then. That's because the only machine it has seen is a carefully calibrated and cleaned projector. The only time it degrades it when the film is actually used. I'm new to audio but I know my motion picture film and in 20 years of working with film, I've never heard of film only lasting 10 years if properly stored. These are original negative stock prints there wouldn't be a soundtrack on it. However, I'd agree that the audio tracks on release prints are garbage and don't last at all.
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  4. Member olyteddy's Avatar
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    Hard drives are also cheap. And last a really long time, especially if you use them as a back up (record to them then spin them down and leave them unpowered until you need to retrieve something).
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  5. Flash drive for easy access, CD/DVD for storage and occasional use, disc HD for long term storage.
    SSD is too new so long term reliability is unknown.
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  6. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    Blu-ray is a terrible archive media, in my opinion. The size of tracks, proprietary nature of the medium, likelihood that it will be obsolete in a few years (while DVD will survive). HD-DVD or BD on DVD would be possibly better, wanting both HD and optical disc. DVD drives will be around quite a while, DVD media is more proven. If nothing else, computer extraction is possible, if not video player viewing.

    Archive to hard drives. RAID arrays, both an off-site and an on-site. Redundant true RAID, not that video gamer RAID-0 crap.

    Dupe again to DAT tape.
    Want my help? Ask here! (not via PM!)
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    Sorry to resurrect an older thread. I concur that SSD is appearing to be the direction. At work I have begun using SSD for archival of secure media. In our testing (large engineering company so I have the resources to test) SSD held up under high temperatures far better than our DAT and LTO tape does, and everyone knows how easily optical discs scorch and melt. The interface protocols and cost aren't what is needed for archival, yet, and the actual devices are engineered for performance so you are paying a premium for attributes not so relevant to archival. But, it's getting there.

    For me at home, I've more or less already decided to take an approach of multiple hard disk copies (different machines, different disks) and keep those safe until solid state makes more sense financially.
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