Best backup methodology for numerous CDs

Hello fellow members,

What would you advise when it comes to doing backups of projects that have a very large amount of storage media like 100+ CDRs? In the past I used to burn all cds individually but this is very tedious and time consuming...

I was thinking about DDS tapes or storing everything on a NAS.

I would be happy to hear about your opinions and tips regarding this topic.

Best regards,
---S---

 

I'd go for the NAS, raid5 at least, with another backup just in case. Dump each CD as an image and compress it.

For a cheaper-yet-less-tedious-than-cd alternative you could back it up to Blu-Ray, it'd required much less discs than with CDs (~ 35 times for 25 GB BD-R).
For backups M-Discs are very durable and the blu-ray version is compatible with any decent burner.
I personally add par2 recovery files in case the discs are damaged but it's not mandatory, depends on your paranoia level.


In the long run, NAS is more convenient, but BD-R is cheaper. Ideally you'd do both and keep the BD-Rs elsewhere.

 

Thanks for your answer, BD-R and NAS seem like a good combo, I didn't think about BD-R but you are actually right, it is much more convenient than DDS tapes.

 

+1 for NAS, and very +1 for raid5+ (Losing all data because one hdd fails = not fun). Maybe keep a copy offsite (eg. USB HDD at your parents' place) in case of fire. I wouldn't bother with optical media or tapes - too much hassle, and unless you have dozens of TB of data, the convenience of large HDDs is worth the higher price imho.

If all those CDs are already burned my main concern would be how to get those read back with a minimum of manual work...

 

I use offsite BD-R backups myself on a per-finished-project basis and for the important stuff. I use M-Discs, which are supposed to outlive us mere mortals. It's a supplementary long-term backup. I wouldn't recommend backing up all your NAS this way, only stuff that will not change over time and that you absolutely want to keep forever (e.g. travel photos, archives, etc.).

 

Thanks for your tips gents! They had way more patience back in the days with all those CDs! Unfortunately optical media like this don't age very well, making more up to date backups is crucial. As a matter of fact I had to resurface some cds to extract the data...

 

I use a home made NAS. Just a basic PC with some hard drives running Linux. So more powerful and more features than something like a Synology at a fraction of the price. I used to use parity RAID but with the price of disks so low I switched to mirroring about 10 years ago. It's much easier to manage having everything on one disk you can pull out and slot into another machine.
But this is for archiving the equivalent of thousands of CDRs not hundreds. For 100 you could save multiple copies on a $50 SSD

 

SSD is the worst support for long times backup...

 

Well at least if a SSD dies you know that all of the data is fucking gone forever, no need to worry about finding a data recovery specialist that could transplant platters or other things like that that you could have tried with a HDD.

I have to admit, though, that I don't know how SSDs fare with long shelf times. For example, how often (if at all) do their memory cells need to be refreshed? Any studies on that?

 

It's not true, you can always recovery portions of data, if not all, with the correct tools (which we common mortal don't have XD)

SSD if are not powered for a period of time data will start corrupt due to cells that begin "discarge" and lose their state. There are lots of articles that you can find via google, for example typing "ssd data retention".
It's not easy to say when data begin "disappear", it depends lots on the model and others factors (and the technology that SSD uses like cell type, controller etc).
It seems with the latest models the time before data degradation starts has lengthened but the problem still persist...

 

I'm surprised DDS tapes are still considered relevant by some in 2016..
Anyhow i would recommend a NAS in a RAID-5/6 configuration. But if you find yourself in a need for more performance, i hear RAID-Z1/2 is also a decent looking solution.

Alternatively, if you have any trust in the modern "Cloud" stuff, you could always encrypt your data with a self-generated key and send it off to Amazon CloudDrive or some other "Cloud" serivce that you might consider promising.

 

Verbatim Archival Discs are the best option, but very expensive in my opinion.

 

That can definitely be an issue with some technologies and anyone who considers using them should bear that in mind. Someone wanting to do a backup would certainly not want to choose a technology where this is an issue and certainly leave the drive powered on if they did.

 

I like how they're advertised with a lifetime of several hundred years but come with a limited warranty of only ten years... But in the end that's still a lot better than any normal CD/DVD, I guess.

Re: SSD data retention - haven't read up on this yet so I'm not sure about the intervals, but I'd think powering up the drive every so often would be sufficient. Give it some time to do self maintenance, then back onto the shelf. Still, you'd have to remember to do this...

 

You would be surprised how many companies I know that still use DDS tapes for storage. Some companies just keep on using old IT assets for years and years even though they are out of date. Surprisingly you can still buy tapes very easily, it is still in production.

At my previous job, they still used ZIP disks...

 

@skarpo01
I am not surprised at all, i witnessed these things operate in productions enviorments not that long ago and am aware of the corporate practices where they neglect upgrades untill it becomes almost too late .
I just wouldn't recommend using DDS tapes for a brand-new backup storage solution nowdays, not when there's much more efficient technologies available.