Hey guys, I just had a curiosity on the multiple ways of storaging stuff and how long would that hold, take backing it up to a newer storage after some years out of the table.
So how did this come in my mind, I was just reminiscing about how I used to play games with inserting a CD or Cartridge onto the device and how I miss that flavour.
I would like to do it again, I already like having my games dependancy free (praise mr goldmountain), and I am saving up some money to spend on hoarding possibilities. I would like to know what would have the longest storage life, would burning games into bluray discs be too unhinged or is something I am missing?
Thanks in advance in helping me out witht his brainstorm.
Discs aren’t very suitable for long term storage. Really the only thing truly suited for long term storage of digital media is archival tape. Which isn’t cheap or accessible. The only accessible solution is to keep it alive in a raid and keep rebuilding as disks fail over the years.
Get Blu Ray discs from a reputable brand (Verbatim, Sony). They were designed to be a lot more resilient than DVDs. Nothing wrong with DVDs either btw, if the smaller size doesn’t bother you, just make sure they’re stored properly either way.
Ah, cool, quite expensive (I see prices in my area around $20 USD / 100 GB) but uses no electricity.
Thanks for informing me. If you have TBs of data it’s not a sustainable solution unless you’re really into indexing. But for family photos and other long term archival its pretty great actually.
Well let’s look at some actually verifiable data. I have optical discs of all generations (CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R) going back 20+ years that are still fine. They don’t spontaneously decompose or anything. As long as they’re properly stored I see no reason for them to stop working for another 20 years.
I do sample them every few years out of curiosity. They mostly contain very old software and game kits from the late 90s and early 2000s so the data is only interesting for historical reasons. I also check them visually for disc rot but so far there hasn’t been any. Which makes sense because they’re not scratched, and they’re stored inside CD wallets put inside boxes put inside a dry cupboard at room temperature so environmental contamination is not likely.
I have azzo verbatims that were tested after burn for pi /po /pie errors that went bad after 15 years despite being stored in black cases in a temp controlled room. It’s not like the entire disc is gone but there are a few unrecoverable errors.
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Discs aren’t very suitable for long term storage. Really the only thing truly suited for long term storage of digital media is archival tape. Which isn’t cheap or accessible. The only accessible solution is to keep it alive in a raid and keep rebuilding as disks fail over the years.
M-DISC may well be a good option for long term storage.
M-DISC’s design is intended to provide archival media longevity. M-Disc claims that properly stored M-DISC DVD recordings will last up to 1000 years
Might be an option, but I bet these things aren’t cheap.
I still backup on DVDs, make multiple copies so one doesn’t go bad. In adition, I also have a storage, so I think I’m good.
Get Blu Ray discs from a reputable brand (Verbatim, Sony). They were designed to be a lot more resilient than DVDs. Nothing wrong with DVDs either btw, if the smaller size doesn’t bother you, just make sure they’re stored properly either way.
BR discs are still very expensive and will most probably be for a very long time. So are the BR drives. That’s why I still use DVDs.
Over here a 25 GB BD-R is about 60 cents USD and a 4.7 GB DVD-R is 30 cents so it makes sense to use Blu Ray.
BR drives are more expensive than DVD drives, true, but I consider it a good investment.
Here, 25GB BR is about $4. DVDs are about $0.20.
Ah, cool, quite expensive (I see prices in my area around $20 USD / 100 GB) but uses no electricity.
Thanks for informing me. If you have TBs of data it’s not a sustainable solution unless you’re really into indexing. But for family photos and other long term archival its pretty great actually.
I picked up a $20 ASUS dvdrw off Amazon and they thru in 2 mdiscs. Just FYI
It claims that.
Well let’s look at some actually verifiable data. I have optical discs of all generations (CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R) going back 20+ years that are still fine. They don’t spontaneously decompose or anything. As long as they’re properly stored I see no reason for them to stop working for another 20 years.
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Do you periodically verify them?
I do sample them every few years out of curiosity. They mostly contain very old software and game kits from the late 90s and early 2000s so the data is only interesting for historical reasons. I also check them visually for disc rot but so far there hasn’t been any. Which makes sense because they’re not scratched, and they’re stored inside CD wallets put inside boxes put inside a dry cupboard at room temperature so environmental contamination is not likely.
Weird my post is gone.
I have azzo verbatims that were tested after burn for pi /po /pie errors that went bad after 15 years despite being stored in black cases in a temp controlled room. It’s not like the entire disc is gone but there are a few unrecoverable errors.