Getting any kind of real world reliability data of storage mediums is really, really hard.īackblaze releases HDD stats, which is the only public information I’m aware of. So why chose optical disks over the alternatives (tapes, HDDs, cloud)?Īs I’ve mentioned, having hard data of their long term reliability was a big factor. It was only when I tested these CDs and DVDs that I realised optical was a contender!Īnd further research showed that BluRay disks were readily available at a reasonable price. Tapes are cheap, but their drives are expense and my only experience with them is from 2002. I wasn’t comfortable with HDDs surviving that long, nor anything stored in the cloud. The 45+ year storage requirement for church compliance data made me re-think how my backups would survive in the long term. This high reliability is what drove me back to optical disks in 2021 - BluRay disks in particular. That’s a perfect record after being stored for 12-18 years, in semi-controlled conditions (darkness, but no temperature or humidity control) and zero maintenance! Discussion When I read data from these backup disks in 2021, I had a 100% success rate! What I didn’t realise at the time, was that all these CDs and DVDs would become a grand experiment of reliability and longevity. Its hard to tell the oldest DVDs, but I think 2004 or 2005 was when I moved from CDs to DVDs for backups.įinally, the DVD era came to an end in 2009, giving way to HDDs and the cloud. The oldest CD I can find is from 2003, containing a snapshot of all my documents at that time. Originally, they were burned to CD-Rs, but I migrated all my CDs to DVDs at some point and discarded the original CDs. My oldest backups are from the end of the year 2000, and are now on DVD+Rs. With particular attention on the reliability of optical disks - BluRay disks and M-Disks. Archives to triplicate BluRay disks, indexed via WinCatalog, two copies stored offsite.ĭiscuss the reasons why I’ve moved back to optical disks as a key part of my backup strategy.Windows File History to my TrueNAS for particular content that doesn’t live on OneDrive.Cloud based backups using OneDrive & BackBlaze.
Copy+Paste archives to external (offline) disks.įive years later, in 2022, my strategy has changed to:.Cloud based backups using CrashPlan BackBlaze.In 2009, I said goodbye to my DVD based backup strategy, because it was taking multiple disks to do a weekly snapshot of my documents and data.Īnd photos were already overflowing many DVDs.
I just finished an extended series on Long Term Backups and Archives.Ī major shift in my personal and professional backup strategy is optical media, in particular, BluRay disks. How long will burned CDs / DVDs / BluRays last? Background
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