OT: are usb flash drives suitable archival media?

Robin Laing Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca
Tue Nov 27 21:45:04 UTC 2007


Bill Davidsen wrote:
> Dave Stevens wrote:
>> your thought? tests? reviews?
>>
> Since you ask, my current choice is DVD, using the dvdisaster system of 
> software assisted error recovery. Nothing is perfect, but a verified DVD 
> with software error recovery assist and good storage procedures is about 
> is cost effective as anything you would get on a flash drive, and a hell 
> of a lot less likely to be accidentally overwritten.
> 
> *Note*: unless a copy is stored off-site, it's not a backup it's an 
> archive. Think fire, flood, theft, untrusted employee, idiot relative, etc.
> 

For archival, DVD is cost effective.  Flash drives are not.

I have just had my second flash drive fail on me.  I was lucky enough to 
be able to mount it on one computer and only one port on that computer 
would allow it to be mounted.

I wouldn't trust any flash drive at this time.

I would purchase a HD and use that.  Of course, hard drives will fail if 
they are not run up regularly.

My preferred method is to create the backup and then create par2 files 
for recovery.

-- 
Robin Laing




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