Archiving Data Permanently

[Reuben D. Budiardja]

On Tuesday 16 August 2005 16:13, Mike McCarty wrote:
> Reuben D. Budiardja wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I'm wondering if people could give me suggestion about the most
> > economical ways to archive data more permanently. <snip>

On Tuesday 16 August 2005 15:57, Ezra Nugroho wrote:
> USB drives? Scratch proof, more heat resistant.

> Evenutally, a tape system will probably be more economical.
>
> The jury is still out on data longevity of CDs and DVDs. Tape
> is known to have 20+year longevity. 

I'd say that in my situation, if the data is not needed after 4-5 years we  
probably won't need it at all. It's just that we don't want to just wipe off 
a desktop machine clean without doing some amount of archiving. So I'm not 
worry about longevity. 
>
> One thing to consider with regards to using compressed
> images... they are intolerant of defects in the storage medium.

Good point. Something to consider indeed. 

> In regards to using (as one suggested) an external disc drive...
>
> Whatever storage medium you use should be kept off-site. If you
> need an on-site copy, it should be considered just that... a copy.
> If you have a disaster at your site, like a fire e.g, you would
> likely lose everything there. 

Thanks, although in my situation this does not really apply. The data is not 
that important, this is just a case where we wouldn't want to just wipe it 
off. 

> OTOH, if you have network capabilities to other computers located
> at a distance, then archival over the network, using e.g. rsync,
> is a very viable solution. It does not, however solve the problem
> of backup of the remote system.

For our 'active' data that change all the time, I use rsnapshot to a backup 
machine. It'd be nice to be able to take every one or two month snapshot and 
put it in a more permanent medium. But I am not sure if I can do that easily 
and economically with about ~200GB data.

RDB