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Re: [ARSCLIST] Archive the hard drive, was CDR media longevity
on 1/21/04 4:19 PM, David Seubert at seubert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I don't think archiving files on hard drives is a viable preservation
> strategy without an alternate media backup such as tape or CDR.
You are, of course, correct David. I would never advocate archiving to a
single media. However hard drives have many advantages, not the least of
which is easily refreshing the data. Copying the data to a new drive is
simple - the cost of the drive and about 10 minutes of labor to initiate the
copy process. However there are significant labor costs associated with
refreshing CD-Rs in addition to the cost of the media.
>
> we have had a simultaneous failure
> of multiple hard drives, which required restoring the drives from tape
> backup. We have 40TB of tape backup and we also backup to the San Diego
> Supercomputer Center. Imagine what happens when the hard drive fails (and
> they will) and you don't have an alternate backup. It's gone.
Of course these drives were spinning and subject to stress which caused
their failure. If the drives were in storage they would not have been
subjected to stress. However it would probably be best to create 2 or even 3
mirrored drives, from different manufactures, and then implement a
refreshing schedule, say every 5 years.
--
Konrad Strauss
Director of Recording Arts
Associate Professor of Music
Indiana University School of Music
http://php.indiana.edu/~kstrauss
http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/audio