[ale] burning blu-ray discs

[Scott Plante]

Of course, good luck finding a controller for that 10 yr old IDE hard drive in another 30 years! Same problem for all this media to some extent though. 

----- Original Message -----

From: "JD" <jdp at algoloma.com> 
To: ale at ale.org 
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 4:16:26 PM 
Subject: Re: [ale] burning blu-ray discs 

Thanks, but aren't HDDs for archival like - 40 yrs on a shelf? 

My google-fu found this: 
http://serverfault.com/questions/51851/does-an-unplugged-hard-drive-used-for-data-archival-deteriorate 
which makes a case AGAINST using HDDs. 

I've never had a HDD refuse to spin up after being on a shelf, but ... there is 
always tomorrow. ;) There are probably a few 80G WDs around to test with - 
they've been unplugged at least a decade - maybe longer. 

Also - the cheap optical media I've used ($20/100 discs) doesn't seem to fail as 
quickly as others report. Only about 5 discs have shown any bit errors since 
2004-ish. The data is validated when retrieved using 10% par/par2 files. All 
data has been reconstructed with the help of the par2 files so far. 

So ... the m-disk stuff seems smarter for longer-term, important, storage. I'm 
convinced. BTW - I didn't think that $140/25 25G discs was expensive - compared 
to a spinning HDD - it is just a tiny bit more, but 5 yrs vs 100+ yrs? SOLD! 

Wanted to ask about using SSDs for archival storage ... I have an unused 16G 
SATA M.2 SSD - that should easily store any critical household records 
"forever", right? ;) Since it is unused and doesn't have any moving parts - that 
means "forever". 



On 08/13/2014 03:40 PM, Jim Kinney wrote: 
> The m-disk reads like a Cd/DVD/Blu-ray but the data doesn't degrade. It's 
> extrapolated lifetime is 1000 years based on Navy stress testing. 
> It's only for archival storage. Uses a special burner (that doesn't cost 
> but maybe a few dollars more than a normal one) to write the disks. Any 
> reader can read them. 
> 
> Typical lifetime of a spinning disk (in use) is 5-8 years (for enterprise 
> grade, 24-7 on line). Tape's can last 20-30 years with proper storage (LTO6 
> 2.5TB is rated for 30 years with proper storage and costs $60/tape - the 
> drive is $4k) 
> 
> The mdisk is a specialty archival media. Think financial records, tax 
> records, family records, etc. or 42 thousand pictures of your cats per 
> blu-ray disk :-) 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 3:06 PM, JD <jdp at algoloma.com> wrote: 
> 
>> On 08/13/2014 10:25 AM, Jim Kinney wrote: 
>>> M-Disc Bluray Recordable Media 25 GB Branded (25 Disc Pack) $130 
>> 
>> 
>> Guess I'm just confused by optical media these days. It isn't cheaper, 
>> isn't as 
>> convenient, it isn't re-writable 100,000x AND costs more than a spinning 
>> disk. 
>> 
>> I suppose if there are HIPPA or other regulatory requirements, but in a 
>> house? 
>> What am I missing? 
>> 
>> BTW, I have over 1,000 backup DVDs here (mix of 4.7 and 8G) ... but stopped 
>> using optical when HDDs became less expensive. Slowly moving those to 
>> 2+TB HDDs 
>> that can be connected via a USB3 dock. 
>> 
>> Can someone please enlighten me? 
>> 
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