How should I back up 170 gb of video?

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Inquisitive Builder

Inquisitive Builder

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Jul 16, 2013
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Hey guys,

I have about 170 gigabytes of video that I'm wanting to back up and put with the lock-boxes and stuff for long-term safekeeping.

What external hard drive would you recommend? I would prefer something that isn't overkill, but is reliable as well since the only other external hard drive I ever used actually died, which essentially defeats the point of having one :p

Any suggestions?
 
Solution
USAFRet
A backup is only as good as the last time you tested it.

What I suggest is two different drives, from two different manufacturers. Both with the longest warranties that they offer. Not that will do anything for your data, but that means that the company has a teeny bit more faith in that particular drive than some of their others.

5 yrs vs 3 yrs.

But in the end, you can't really depend on a specific drive, no matter who makes it. I have some that are 15+ years old, and still work fine. I've had others die at 3 months.

EDIT: And NOT external drives in the enclosure. Regular drives, using a SATA dock or cable, as JackNaylorPE suggests. One less integrated thing to break.
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nukemaster

nukemaster

Titan
Nov 23, 2004
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Archive quality optical media may be an option for you as well.

I am not 100% sure how long data stays in tact on a hard drive over long periods of time.

Another thread here on Tom's you may wish to check out would be this
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/298802-32-long-term-data-storage-reliable-question-inside

I am with you about long term storage. I use hard drives, but have never stored anything for what most would call long term, Its just backups of my personal files.

I have have to look into something more permanent for my pictures.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
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A backup is only as good as the last time you tested it.

What I suggest is two different drives, from two different manufacturers. Both with the longest warranties that they offer. Not that will do anything for your data, but that means that the company has a teeny bit more faith in that particular drive than some of their others.

5 yrs vs 3 yrs.

But in the end, you can't really depend on a specific drive, no matter who makes it. I have some that are 15+ years old, and still work fine. I've had others die at 3 months.

EDIT: And NOT external drives in the enclosure. Regular drives, using a SATA dock or cable, as JackNaylorPE suggests. One less integrated thing to break.
 
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Solution
T

trkr81

Honorable
Jun 12, 2012
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I see a couple of options:

ONE: just pick up an external hard drive, preferably USB 3.0 if your computer has a USB 3.0 port (blue port). You can get a 1TB drive for like $69, however in your case, you're wasting a lot of storage space and using only 1/10 of the capacity.

TWO: get a smaller SSD (Solid State Drive) ... say 180GB or 256GB with a usb adapter. This way, you could use the SSD drive in the future (build your own computer, replace current your Hard Drive with the faster SSD, etc).

That's my 2 cents. :)
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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^ Depends on what he means by "long term" when it comes to flash storage like SSD's. After a year without power flash storage will lose its data as it is volatile memory only sustained by batteries integrated into it.

The answer to your question really depends on how long you intend to store it.
 
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nukemaster

nukemaster

Titan
Nov 23, 2004
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Something interesting.

I have just started to test some old cd's that had been burned 10+ years ago. So far one has failed to validate(meaning some data loss). Now this was burned by someone else on what may be cheap media.

The real surprise is the CD-RW's(from what I read theses can go first.) are still able to be read cleanly.

Still testing, but May want to get my self some M-discs for my pictures since I would not want to loose those.

I personally have no issues with external enclosures provided you are able to open it to remove the drive if needed. Most dead externals I have come across had failed boards with a still working drive. My external drives are off all the time when not doing a backup so I have never had a drive or enclosure fail yet(while most users who I have seen have issues use them 24/7).

I wonder how long write once bluray will last. They have lots more space than dvd's

I am not trying to thread jack, just looking for similar info :)
 
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