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#20
Hi Everyone, Thanks Golden for giving me a bit of a laugh.
Don't bother with other forums...just come here, we have several people that specialise in complaining.
August 8, 2017 - KB4034679 (Security-only update) Windows 7
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New #21
Nothing wrong with a bit of paranoia when it comes to backups.
I keep 3 different backups of every single drive I have (too many to mention spanning across many systems).
2 local backups of each drive encrypted at home, and one encrypted backup of each in a safe away from home. Those only get backed up once a month.
There's a lot of nasties on the internet these days (ransomware, etc). Even with the multiple layers of protection I use on each system, I'm still taking no chances!
I would love to switch to full SSD storage and get away from mechanical drives, but with the amount of large size drives I have and multiple backups - it would just be way too costly for me. Using SSD's for the OS drives and VM's at the moment. When the price goes down further, then I'll be able to fully switch.
Not saying mechanic drives are all bad, but l did have 2 Seagate drives die on me in the space of a few months. Probably just bad luck, but I've been avoiding their drives now. I do look forward to the day when I can go fully SSD though. I use mostly Samsung's and a couple of Crucial MX300's and they've all been great.
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New #22
You're almost as "bad" as I am. I have two local and two offsite (my safe deposit box at my credit union) for each data drive in my computer. I swap the onsite backup drives with the offsite drives at least once a month. I also have a Carbonite account I can recover files from that were created or changed after I put my offsite backups in the safe deposit box and/or since my last backup.Nothing wrong with a bit of paranoia when it comes to backups.
I keep 3 different backups of every single drive I have (too many to mention spanning across many systems).
2 local backups of each drive encrypted at home, and one encrypted backup of each in a safe away from home. Those only get backed up once a month...
I hear you, man! I had to choose between a new truck and my 4TB SSDs (the truck lost).
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New #25
I don't get the argument here. If you stick with simply 1 TB drives then the SSD (Samsung 850 EVO) vs a 1TB WD Blue (7200rpm) then the cost advantage of the HDD over the SSD is ~ 7 times.
I can do a 60GB image on a 2TB WD Blue (5400rpm) in under 10 min and these drives are relatively even low cost.
So I think the SSD technology has to significantly reduce its price point to be a competitive mass storage backup option unless speed is a critical factor. I'm sure it will get there.
In terms of long term storage reliability then I think it is uncertain.Last edited by mjf; 04 Sep 2017 at 03:27. Reason: correction
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New #26
I was agreeing with Mike about using large SSDs as part of a backup plan being expensive simply because it is. Hugely expensive!
Strictly speaking, using SSDs for large data storage is NOT cost effective. However, cost effectiveness is not the only criteria one has to consider when making the decision whether or not to use them for massive data storage. Lower operating temperature, lighter weight, smaller size, higher speeds, etc. are also factors one must consider. In my case, it was lighter weight and smaller size were the main criteria that swayed my decision, although less heat generated also entered the equation.
I'm approaching 70 and I'm handicapped. I used to lug six 3.5" backup HDDs to and from my safe deposit box at my credit union every month. Those HDDs were gaining weight every month (or so it felt like to my old carcass) and I was needing to add another data drive to my computer, which would have added two more HDDs to lug back and forth to my credit union every month. I was running out of room in my safe deposit box for HDDs and the HDDs at home were eating up a lot of storage space (my home is small so storage space isn't exactly plentiful). The three storage HDDs I already had in my computer were noticeable adding to the amount of heat my computer pumped into the room, which is aggravated by the computer running 24/7.
Every month, I had to pack up each backup HDD into an antistatic bag, then insert them into a Pelican case designed for transporting HDDs, then lug the case and drives to my credit union to make the swap. After getting the drives back home, I had to remove the drives from the case, remove them from the antistatic bags, then return them to the antistatic "egg crate" (or "pigeon holes") for storage at home. It was time consuming and becoming an increasingly pain in the whole body (not just one body part).
By switching to SSDs, I was able to reclaim the large drawer I kept the HDDs in. The backup SSDS (a total of 16) reside in two much smaller small antistatic "egg crates" I made: one at home and one in my safety deposit box (each of the four data SSDs now in my computer have four sets of backup SSDs: two of each set at home and the other two of the set in my safe deposit box). The "egg crate" at home occupies only half of a much smaller drawer.
When it's time to swap out the eight home backup SSDs with the eight in the safe deposit box, I put the entire "egg crate" into a much smaller (and lighter) Pelican case (each "egg crate" was custom designed to fit into the smaller case), carry the much lighter case and drives to my credit union, swap out the "egg crates", then go back home and put the "egg crate" back into its drawer. Besides dramatically reducing the amount of weight I'm lugging around, the entire process takes far less time and work. Updating my backups after the swap used to take hours to days. Now, thanks to the increased speed of SSDs, it only takes less than a handful of hours.
Were the SSDs expensive? Heck yeah! The only way I could afford it was to forget about buying a new pickup truck and keep the "old" one (she's nine years old but has only around 55, 000 miles on her and she still looks brand new). Even after factoring in the costs of maintenance I need to do on the old truck (new tires, brakes, shocks, hoses, etc.), I still will have spent a wee bit less than half of the cost of a new truck on the SSDs so one could say I saved money buy buying the SSDs (I caught them all on sale late last year).
SSDs may not be as reliable for long term, static storage (i.e. setting on a shelf for years without being touched) as HDDs but each my backup SSDs are not static for more than a month, which is far below the maximum SSDs can be static without losing data. I could miss swapping out the SSDS for several months and still be safe.
Do I recommend that everyone use SSDs for massive amounts of storage and maintain as many backups as I do? Heck no! Two backups, one onsite and one offsite, for each data drive is plenty for most people and the expense would not be cost effective.
in my case, however, I have critical data I cannot afford to lose (I'm only four #10 envelopes shy of having a completely paperless home office). I've already ripped all my music CDs and scanned their covers to my computer and will eventually destroy the originals (currently stored in storage cases instead of the bulky jewel boxes they are in). I've started scanning the covers to all my BDs and DVDs so I could move them from their even bulkier cases to more compact storage spaces and will eventually rip the discs themselves (and ultimately destroy them as well).
The number of backups I maintain seems anal but even backup drives can fail. I had a data drive and one of its local backup drives fail on me once. It would have taken me several days to retrieve one of the offsite backups, recover most of the last data, then download the data added to my computer since I had put the offsite backup in my safe deposit box from my Carbonite.com account. By having the extra onsite backup, I was able to restore both the data drive in the computer and the other backup drive (the drives had somehow become corrupted but were otherwise fine) within a few hours.
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