We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.
I have two internal SSDs in both my PC and in my Laptop.
One SSD is used for OS and files as normal. The other is used for automatic versioned backups of user files (not the OS) on the first SSD, every time I boot.
I also have two multibay USB DAS. Mergerfs and snapraid. One DAS is used mainly for media file storage and for backups of important folders on my PC and Laptop, as well as backups of my phone (mostly photos) and tablet. The other DAS is used mainly for backups of the other DAS.
Does anyone have any suggestions for offsite backup? I've heard backblaze is good but looking for suggestions!
I use Arq Premium for cloud storage (1TB)
Don't forget to unplug hard drives when they aren't in use, helps them last a little longer. Also I heard cooling can make a difference. Almost time to replace my 2019 drives I think
'There's two kinds of people in this world, those that have backups, and those who will'
Welcome to the club, and sorry for your loss.
There's lots of practices around backups with different levels of complexity and costs. Before deciding on how you want to handle things going forward ask yourself a few questions
In some cases, it's cheaper and less headache to use cloud backup services for smaller amounts of data, with the downside being that you're trusting someone else with your data.
In others, setting up your own DAS(direct attached storage) or NAS (network attached storage) might make sense, then you manage the data locally. You should do some reading to understand the basic concepts of RAIDs 1,0,5 and 10 and how they affect data redundancy.
Lastly, consider if a 3-2-1 (The 3-2-1 rule states that you should have 3 copies of your data (your production data and 2 backup copies) on two different storage types with one copy off-site for disaster recovery.) back up policy makes sense for you and your risk tolerance. Some absolutists will state you have no real backup without it, but IMO there's some grey area there depending on different needs and risk tolerances.
The important part is you're now considering options to reduce your chances of experiencing this again.
Once as a teenager I think I had a drive die and I lost my data, but ever since then I've always made sure to have a backup of my data. Ironically, I haven't had a drive die since then lol. For example, I've got ssds from over a decade ago still running daily with no issues.
Yeah I don't think I'm getting an HDD ever again
All drives die eventually whether they are HDD’s or SSD’s.
8 years is a good run for any type of drive.
Backups are key for keeping your data safe over the decades.
But aren’t SSD’s good for like decades of continual use and petabytes of written data? That seems much more reliable than hdds.
Not necessarily. I’ve had enterprise SSD’s die that were under 1yr old with less than 100TB written.
I also have HDD’s used in my surveillance system that have several petabytes written to them over the last 6yrs still going strong.
I just moved the HDD I got in my first NAS (8TB WD Red) to its 4th home and it just turned 7 y/o.
All storage media fails HDD or SSD. Focus on a backup plan, not your media type.
SSD will die as well and it will be nearly impossible to recover data when that happens
Anyone know the chances a centre can recuperate the data?
Varies greatly depending on the issue
I've had one drive die on me and that was in a PC that was inside my house when it experienced a severe fire.
It lasted long enough for me to pull the data to another disk but on the next reboot it died.
These days I have a parity protected nas, a backup nas and and an off-site storage solution with my more essential data. Also cloud for photos.
That is why you want to have backups. You have learnt it the hard way, you obviously not the one who had this issue. I believe almost everyone in a such way got his lesson.
The most cost-efficient backups are still depending on the amount of storage. As for me, it can be external drive/backup NAS and cloud.
Have you tried contacting HARRY_SPEEF On Instagram? he's the expert that helped me when i had same issue some weeks back
Live and learn
I had no backup
Well... no pity from me then.
Use M-disc dvds. They won't rot and they'll last 1000 yeara
Depends on what caused the hdd to fail. If it was the PCB, for example - that would have been 100% recoverable 20 years ago, but for the past couple decades the interleave/alignment data is stored on the pcb and without the original, a drive just looks blank to a new PCB. If the drive supported on-device encryption, and the pcb failed, you can eventually put the drive back in service but your data is gone.
Motors, bearings, and head actuators can usually be repaired enough to salvage data in a competent lab. Also certain failures caused by firmware flaws can be recovered from (I have done this myself).
If you didn't have a backup, you already know, it wasn't important.
I guess not. Is anything that important? Is it not better to let go of as much as possible?
The stuff on my drives is absolutely that important, and I have backups of all of it.
It is ok .i too dropped like 3 filled small hdds with important data .
Depends on what you have to backup
I backup some stuff I don't really care about yet don't want to be bothered recovering in cloud, in encrypted archives
This gets way more sympathy if you leave out the HDD part. Just sayin'
lol, dark
If you like that one, how about "I have a bunch of 6 year olds hooked up in my basement" to refer to an old array of disks on a dedicated server.
Why people only post here after their drive dies? Don't be offended if you won't get sympathy here, because there are about 2 posts like this every week.
Why there are no posts like "Look, guys I've made backups, be proud of me!" ?