Archiving Data Permanently

[Robin Laing]

Reuben D. Budiardja wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm wondering if people could give me suggestion about the most economical 
> ways to archive data more permanently. Often time we want to clean up some 
> harddrive from machines in our offices, and we want to archive the data first 
> before we wipe it out, just in case we need them in the future, though 
> unlikely. What's the best way to do this in cases like that ? I am talking 
> about 20GB - 75GB size data maybe. 
> 
> What I've done so far is just tar-bzip2-ed all the files and directory to a 
> single .tar.bz2 file. Then I am planning to use 'split' to split it and then 
> write them to like CD or DVD, but this could easily takes many discs. Are 
> there any other more economical ways ?  
> 
> Thank you for any help.
> 
> RDB
> 

Having done some stuff with RAR files, I would be tempted to make 
archives on DVD by using RAR files.  As these can be rebuilt if planned 
properly.

There are questions about the life of DVD's but they are very cheap and 
you could make multiple copies.

I do agree with tape but I have had problems with tape archives and this 
would concern me.

Also, if the data needs to be protected for years, then check the data 
from time to time.

As stated by others, having a drive and software that can read the data 
is one issue.  The other is the format of the data.  It doesn't do much 
good to have the files if you don't have the software to read it.

I use DVD's and planning on using RAR at home and work.
-- 
Robin Laing