media for archiving in cold storage

[patrion87]

LTO tape or MDisc Blu-ray + drive are expensive, what is the best media option for long-term archiving in cold storage without power?

[4kblurayguru]

You can't afford it so why ask?

follow 3 2 1 backup and verify data every 3 years, when you detect failures you move to another format.

[johns0]

Usb flash drive,they are cheap and reliable when you get a good brand.

[lingyi]

follow 3 2 1 backup and verify data every 3 years, when you detect failures you move to another format.

This is the answer, but you don't have to follow a set yearly regimen and definitely don't wait until you see a failure. Continually check, verify and copy to new devices/media

For price per TB, hard drives nearly universally worldwide, are the lowest cost per TB.

For longevity, only LTO (LTO tape is redundant, LTO = Linear Tape Open) has proven longevity of up to 30 years in proper storage. Newer drives such as LTO-8/9 are extremely expensive in the mid $$$$ range, but older drives are much lower, typically in the mid $$$ range used. LTO 5/6 is the current sweet spot for tradeoff between capacity, 1.5TB/3TB raw capacity* for LTO-5 and LTO-6. Tape cost per TB is roughly the same at $7-10 USD for used tapes. Rumors are LTO-10 may be released this year, which will lower LTO-8/9 drive prices, but it will be years before low $$$$ prices, if ever will be seen.

*Never rely on the advertised compressed capacity size. This will almost never be reached with anything but very heavy text only files.

[frank_footer]

i see no reason to use such expensive solutions like lto or mtape + cold storage in normal situations.

that type of tech is really meant for extreme use, such as top secret data used by government agencies or similar uses.

for home use usb thumb drives as already stated or sdhc is fine for some people, though i much prefer the small laptop spinning rust hard drive.

my most important data is encrypted using pgp or gpg and backed up to one of those laptop drives, as well as uploaded to google drive and to a remote server i rent.

your really need to assess how important the data you want to archive is.

is it the birth of a child or some similar event that is irreplaceable? then a reliable physical backup + off site backup is called for.

is it porn, or some similar content? then a backup is questionable.

[lordsmurf]

LTO tape or MDisc Blu-ray + drive are expensive, what is the best media option for long-term archiving in cold storage without power?

M-Disc is a brand name, and they sell discs to newbie suckers that don't know any better. M-Disc is not, and has never been, the best blank optical media. It's mediocre at best, and poorly supported by most optical drives (both reading and writing).

Blu-ray is an inverted CD-R in construction. The lower polycarb layer is super thin, easy to damage, easy to lose data. The "solution" to this was the put goo on the bottom layer, but that didn't help much. HD-DVD was a vastly superior format, and it sucks that they lost this pathetic "format war". The movies long ago moved to streaming, and for archival optical data we're left with only DVD-R (and some DVD+R, and preferably single-layer for both).

"Cold" storage is often a bad idea due to humidity. The humidity content for truly "cold" film storage is vastly different for magnetic and optical media.

You can't afford it so why ask?
follow 3 2 1 backup and verify data every 3 years, when you detect failures you move to another format.

^ This.

For price per TB, hard drives nearly universally worldwide, are the lowest cost per TB.

^ This.

I have data on HDD, SSD, and optical. But costs and time matters. So most data goes to HDD, important + fast access needed (to get back up and running) to SSD, and "I never ever want to lose this" to optical stored in multiple locations. For that last one, mostly select photos, certain personal documents, a few rare DVD-Video movies, some rarer media (music, artwork, digital comics, etc).

BTW, I'd bet money this is gamemaniaco again.

i see no reason to use such expensive solutions

Are all of your posts at this site going to be whinging about what stuff costs?

is it porn, or some similar content? .

Projecting? You've said this same thing in other posts.

Hint: This is a video site, and video projects take tons of space. Some of us choose to backup our work files, not delete it. That's the difference between "video for work" and "video for play".

that type of tech is really meant for extreme use, such as top secret data used by government agencies or similar uses.

What a ridiculous statement.

[frank_footer]

i see no reason to use such expensive solutions

Are all of your posts at this site going to be whinging about what stuff costs?

is it porn, or some similar content? .

Projecting? You've said this same thing in other posts.

Hint: This is a video site, and video projects take tons of space. Some of us choose to backup our work files, not delete it. That's the difference between "video for work" and "video for play".

that type of tech is really meant for extreme use, such as top secret data used by government agencies or similar uses.

What a ridiculous statement.

people are creatures of habit and they have a view point that manifests itself in the advice they give to others.

i always consider the monetary cost of doing something, it's who i am and it comes out in the advice i give to people.

you, and one other, are self appointed experts on everything, know-it-alls that don't quite know even a fraction of what they think they do, that are self important dicks.

this manifests itself in the responses you give, which are full of contradictory viewpoints and disparaging remarks to anyone that you disagree with.

i do not understand why it is that this site's moderators have tolerated your, and that other person's. behavior for this long.

[lordsmurf]

i always consider the monetary cost of doing something, it's who i am and it comes out in the advice i give to people.

You don't consider negative economics, aka "buy cheap, buy twice".

full of contradictory viewpoints

Such as?

you, and one other, are self appointed experts

This is amusing. For starters, I never refer to myself as an "expert". I just know what I know (and don't what I don't).

For this exact topics, for example, I have literally signed NDAs with optical media companies, in order to share information with them, and they with me. In the 2000s into 2010s (stopped due to health decline + media phased out, heavy industry M&A), I conducted optical media experiments, with special attention paid to longevity (as it was still not mature). Datarius was nice and all, but it wasn't real-world, and the media companies did not do it. This is why manufacturer testing was largely bunk.

When it comes to physical media, it's all aged/obsolete/outdated. Everything is about streaming now. So discussions on capture hardware, optical media storage, etc -- it's all known knowns now. Here, for this topic, we (mostly referring to me/others here, clearly not you) know how the media is constructed, the longevity, humidity concerns, materials, costs, patents, etc.

So this is like a 10-year-old telling the teacher he doesn't know anything.

In summary, to this topic here:
- M-Disc is a joke, pure marketing
- never "cold" optical or magnetic media -- store only within recommended specs
- LTO has lots of negatives, in terms of convenience and costs -- HDD is better for almost all individuals