On 21 April 2017 at 15:55, Rob Malpass via Hampshire <
hampshire@???> wrote:
>
> Hi all
>
> Is DAT still a viable backup medium if you want USB and to avoid optical
disks?
>
> I’ve got about 8Tb to backup and for various reasons don’t fancy: LTO,
BluRay, Cloud or HDD (i.e. NAS). I know DAT’s quite old (and I might even
be forced to use DAT160 because of cost) but if it’ll do the archiving
(write once read seldom) job I have in mind for 8Tb (even if that’s a lot
of tapes) I’d be happy.
>
Hi,
You don't say how long you need the keep the data for.
I store my data (mainly old pictures) on HDD that are left offline.
About once every 5 years, I buy new HDD, spin up the old one, and make a
new copy of the data onto the new HDD.
I keep the data on at least 2 HDDs.
Even with backup tape, you still need to refresh it, buy new tapes, and
copy the old data over once in a while.
It is a myth that CD/DVD last a long time. Google says they can last 200
years.
I have found CD/DVDs can degrade after only a few years. Generally, the
plastic in them tends to degrade, which make the data on the unreadable.
They are also quite highly dependent on the CD/DVD drive that wrote them. A
CD written on one drive, might not be readable on another drive.
I quite like using HDD, because the data is locked away in quite a strong
metal case.
One thing to watch out for on backups. Make sure you keep a catalogue. I.e.
So you know which files are on which storage mediums.
Without that, if one fails, you won't know what has been lost!
I keep a list of filenames/paths/sha256sum. So, if one is lost, I can be
fairly sure that I have the correct file to replace it from the second copy.
Unless you do this, when you come back in 5 years, you will have forgotten
where everything is.
Some data I have, that I really never wish to ever loose, I just post it to
the internet somewhere, and it never gets forgotten!!!
Kind Regards
James
--
Please post to: Hampshire@???
Web Interface:
https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire
LUG URL:
http://www.hantslug.org.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------
