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jamie_ridyard

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  1. <p>Andrew, Eric, these discussions are very informative for us readers, but become uncomfortable when the arguments turn 'ad hominem'. Let's try to stick to the subject matter and win only by good argument, preferably citing supporting empirical evidence. I know this will sound patronising, and I apologise for that. It's easy for someone on the sidelines to say 'calm down, guys.'<br> My 2c worth is that we should not focus on the medium, but the properties of the medium. HDD is fast, cheap, convenient and heavy. BDR is slow, cheap, light and waterproof. Also HDD is 'write many' and BDR is 'write once'.<br> My main concern is 'propagating corruption' as defined by the American Society of Media:<br> Photographers http://www.dpbestflow.org/backup/backup-overview<br> because this has happened to me many times, not due to viruses, I should add. Write once media are one of the most practical ways to avoid this. Those who use HDDs as the sole technology for backup are highly likely to be at risk of propagated corruption.<br> And for those who still have concerns, read the whole article, because it is encyclopaedic, and covers all reasonable concerns, points out the risks of optical as well as HDD backups, and reminds us all that for most people, it's a question of cost v risk, not a question of whether HDD+HDD is better than HDD+Optical - they are both dangerous compared to more expensive methods. <br> In case it helps, here's what I do, which is HDD+HDD+Cloud+Offsite_VPN+BDR, and I find cost effective:<br> 1 - Main machine has working storage on internal HDD.<br> 2 - Overnight mirroring software mirrors the working storage to an internal HDD on another computer (the 'server') in the office. Many workstations could all do this to one central server, see 3 below.<br> This means at most one day can be lost. Also gives a simple recovery mechanism for up to 24h if you mess something up. <br> 3 - The 'server' runs cloud backup software such as carbonite, crashplan, etc and continuously backs up the entire set.<br> This gets data offsite at least every 24 hours, and lets you back up a set of computers for one subscription.<br> 4 - The 'server' also backs up to another computer offsite over Hamachi (cheap VPN), whether a friend's, in another office of the company, or a family computer. Simple 'I backup yours, you backup mine' strategies are popular. <br> This protects against the cloud storage provider being unreliable just when you need to recover an entire backup. Just google horror stories from any cloud provider you care to mention. <br> 4 - On a regular basis, typically monthly to be honest for me, I back up anything not already on BDR to a series of 50Gb BDR discs for write once backup, to avoid creeping corruption. I do this on 2x discs, one for on-site and one for off-site. Anyone who claims this is quick is cleverer than me - it is a pain and takes me a few minutes setting up each disc. But I think it's worth it. <br> BDR is cheap to mail, or reliable once thrown into a shoulder bag, unlike HDD with moving platters. Also waterproof.<br> I store one set of BDR in a fire safe on site, and in a fire safe off site. <br> When a new optical format becomes available with much higher density I copy all the old onto the new format. I copied 700Mb CDRs to 4Gb DVDs, did not copy 4gb to 9gb DVDs, did not copy to 25GB BDR, did copy to 50GB BDR, and will wait probably for 200Gb BDR to become effective before doing another copy. This was not as time consuming as I worried, and was only every few years, and also flushed out any bad discs. <br> I've been doing this for years. Still lose the occasional file. Nothing is perfect ;)<br> J</p>
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