What I hear most often is to avoid portable hard
> drives as they are more likely to fail than any other media types.
JW: True, all else being equal. That said, for backup purposes they are
still OK given that backups should be kept for a very short period of time
for disaster recovery only. :)
> I've heard the life of optical is unknown, but there is a risk the film
> inside
> wrinkles or fails in some way so it ruins the disk though I have personally
> never had that happen.
JW: Generally speaking, optical media will outlast the hardware required to
read it and the software required to read the data on it. The latest figures
I've seen and trust are 5-10 years for CD-RW and DVD-RW and 10-20 years for
CD-R and DVD-R. Blu-ray stuff we think will be about the same but unknown as
yet.
> Here are the types I'm thinking of initially:
>
>
>
> Optical (CD, DVD or other optical storage media)
>
Slow to write to and read from, longest lifespan, very inexpensive, not much
risk of damage even from dropping
>
> Magnetic Static (floppy disks, backup tapes)
Floppy is a non-starter. Backup tapes get pretty complex but are the fastest
stable backup media. Fairly robust.
>
> Magnetic, motor driven, fixed (Hard Drives mounted in PCs)
Good for active storage and backups. Short lifespan, susceptible to physical
and magnetic damage.
>
> Magnetic, motor driven, portable (Portable Hard drives)
Good for active storage and backups. Short lifespan, susceptible to physical
and magnetic damage.
>
> Solid State (Thumb Drives, Flash Cards, etc.)
No moving parts. Lifespan generally unknown but as long as the form factor
isn't obsoleted they should last as long or longer than the software
required to read the data on them.
>
> Microfilm (just kidding, we know 500 years and can be read with a
> flashlight)
So bottom line to me is any of them are OK for backups generally as long as
the backups are kept for fairly short periods of time.
Jesse WIlkins
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