Submission + - an archival system for a home user
sameerds writes: What is the best way to archive data in a home setup? The kind of data I am looking at is photographs, music and old documents mainly.
I suppose the answer might be a combination of different media, for different kinds of files.
- Size: One property of this kind of data is that newer files are likely to be larger than older files. Just because they can be, usually. For example, I am sure to save photographs with the largest possible resolution, which will increase every time I upgrade my camera.
- Frequency: I am likely to access music more often than photos, which in turn will be accessed more often than old documents. But I would like easy access to photos when I do want to access them, especially for non-techies; say, as convenient as pulling out an old family album.
- Reliability: The old documents are the ones that require maximum reliability, followed by photographs. Music is less critical since I can acquire new copies in the worst case. Of course there are exceptions to that too, in case of vintage items.
I suppose the answer might be a combination of different media, for different kinds of files.
- Archival quality optical media — how long do they last? Will there be drives to read them 10-20 years from now? Could be too slow for data that is accessed frequently.
- Hard discs — one would imagine an array with enough redundancy and some preventive maintenance through timely replacement of hard disks. The capacity will keep growing as older discs are replaced with newer ones. But the power cost is pretty high for data that you don't access often. How does a hard disc compare with an optical disc, both kept away with very little use?
- Flash RAM — How long does that last? How reliable is it?