Best storage devices for long term data backup or archive

Most of today's USB Thumb drives, external hard drives are great at keeping your data safe for decades, just make sure you have more than one copy

[Snowey-pu]

Thanks for the video, here are some tips of my own: 1) use usb, ssd and ehd. 2) write down when they've been filled up the last, name them and put them in a Calc sheet. 3) check for errors every year or so, maybe 2 (I use Hard Disk Sentinel - Disk - Surface Test - Disk Repair; can take a long time though. 4) you can use 2 physical devices + 1 backup service (NO Cloud!). 5) if data is private, always encrypt or use a password (100- character passwords aren't easy to crack 😀, read impossible, even when using an Nvidia RTX-4090 for 100s of years of brute-forcing). 6) this could be boring/work-intensive when backing up 1, 000s of files: put in that same Calc sheet what files are on what devices. 7) don't use too big a device size. It's not fun having to re-backup a 6Tb hard disk that just died. I use 256Gb (~231Gb really) usb sticks for this reason. And if you really need to use a eg 6Tb drive, get 2.

[cliffmathew]

M-DISC or special archival quality DVD discs will address the longevity aspect. A bigger problem will be the availability of reader drives. Flash drives, hard drives, SSDs etc. are not meant for long term retention. The electrical or magnetic properties can be disrupted over a few years. So do not rely on them -- unless you also meticulously follow a process to refresh them every few years by reading, and preferably writing to something new and current.

[besimAOG]

Weird, my hard drive, sd cart and usb stick failed. Only my cds are still holding my data after a decade.

[writerpatrick]

I've found over decades that CDs and DVDs hold up well. There are a few made poorly, like the ones that Windows XP used, that will deteriorate over time but most hold up well. You do have to make sure you do a burn at once to avoid open disks that may not read on drives other than the machines that they were burned on, and you should always use verification when burning. If a disk is bad it's often because it wasn't burned right in the first place. And it's always important to store them properly so they should never be kept outside or even in a basement where dampness can get to them. And like any media, important data should be stored more than once so that if one goes bad at least the data can be retrieved from another disk.
Of course whatever media you use, you should expect some loss. I've lost stuff on CDs and DVDs, but I've also lost stuff on HDs.
CDs and DVDs will often allow for at least some data retrieval whereas flash drives can loose everything. I've never had a bad CD or DVD I couldn't get something off of.
However, lately the cost and capacity of external drives, and the difficulty of finding cheap DVDs and DVD cases makes external drives more reasonable and often cheaper than DVDs. 100 DVDs can cost about $40 and hold about 430G whileas an external drive can hold for times as much for twice the price.

[FlyingFun.]

Dont forget cloud storage.
Best practice is minimum 3 places for backups.
and then of course there is archiving which is a different thing to backups.
It's a protblem thats been around for many decades and there is no simple 100% safe answer so use every method available to you for the data that is really important ie photos and video of your kids growing up.
But in the end it will all turn to dust ( and so will we ) so don't worry too much about it lol.

[SamA-jgvy]

I think the environment that the media will be exposed to should also be considered. If there is a chance that the storage media might be exposed to electromagnetism or static discharge than the CD/DVD might actually be more reliable as long as you can protect it from too much sun, heat, scratches, etc. I agree that DVD/CD is a flimsy and primitive storage media but I think it still has it's applications... are you planning on being around in 200 years to see whether or not your data is still on the DVD? If so, I would imagine you would make at least another additional copy within that time period. Which storage media is most likely to just randomly lose your data for no apparent reason? I've had this happen to me LOTS of times with SSD drives... as well as thumb drives. I've NEVER had it happen with a DVD/CDR providing that it was properly stored and cared for. I love your video. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[TheDemonRusher]

Not sure how I feel about dvds and cds. Many people with old CD and DVD collections from the 80s still hold up pretty well. As long as you take care of it, it will be in tip top condition. Though my hard drive has lasted for more than 10 years now and I am pleased that data was not lost.

[CommentedBus]

Ive been trying to store all of my data on blue ray discs but I dont think they are too reliable even though they are supposed to be better than dvd's. They sell individual discs up to 128gb each making them a pretty good value per disc. Even though they may be unreliable if one disc fails i still have others to recover data from. My hdd the other week made a scratching noise and lost all of my data, so i guess im gonna stick to storing data to many different forms of media.

Flash drives and full size sd cards arent too bad. I have some from over 10 years ago that still hold data.

[BilalHeuser]

There are "millenium discs" (mdisc) that will hold your data for very long periods of time.

Unfortunately, most people don't know the difference between "backing up" and "archiving". So they don't know how to use the appropriate storage method or technology.

[markanderson]

I still have cd's, dvd' holding pretty well after 10 years. Eventually they will degrade at some point. I prefer HDD storage any day of the week, you can get them at very reasonable prices.

You can get either 2.5 or 3.5 drives and encase them turning them into a portable. Or just get a portable drive. However I would not recommend flash drives for long term storage. Some can hold fairly well but when they fail it's epic.

I had one that just stopped working out of the blue and I lost everything, it was unrecoverable. No matter what I did the system just would not recognize or accept the flash drive. Even using command prompt I even could not reformat it.

I have been able to recover data from HDD's though. But you are absolutely correct with having more than 1 copy! In various locations as well.

[amitghosh]

Can pendrive, flash drive or solid state drive be used to store important data for 30 years without getting Corrupted?

[jjohnson]

external hdd's and vf cards work great for me

[mattheweburns]

CDs and DVDs with bubble. Magnetic stuff is not good either. Tips are magnetic. Honestly, protected paper or some kind of by Ineri punched metal lol braille?

[mertkaracayil]

ssds are the future no more discs or usbs. either stick to hard drive if your on a budget or ssd's if no budget.

[MrDeviousdom]

Respectfully, this information is not accurate. Realistically, modern optical media, especially single layer Blu-ray discs, from reputable manufacturers, will last much longer than any of the other medias currently available.
I've got cheapy CDRs that I burned 20 years ago and the check sums still add up.

[jackscave]

Title: Best storage devices for long term data backup or archive
Answer: Everything that is not cd/dvd
Thanks a lot