Question test hdd

Steltek · Sep 26, 2024

igor_kavinski said:
Only someone who hasn't faced catastrophic disasters with HDDs would say that.

HDDs suck BIG TIME!

They are SO BAD that they should have RAID built-in! So that when the built-in redundancy fails, we can still get our data out of it rather than losing 8TB or more data in one go!

Not everyone can afford two HDDs or has the time to keep up to date backups.

The only reason I haven't had HDDs crap on me for a long time is because I'm not actively using them.

Write this on a whiteboard or blackboard 500 times before you goto sleep tonight: HDDs SUCK and I will NOT trust my data to HDDs!

/rant

The music industry is learning this lesson the hard way right now.

https://www.wired.com/story/music-industry-hard-drive-storage-archives/

gamerfan · Sep 26, 2024

If I had known this before, I would not have bought 4 HDDs to store files
HDDs fail, flash memory fails, high-capacity optical discs are expensive and require expensive drives and they fail too, LTO media is expensive, so what is the most reliable media with a decent price?

Is it possible to maximize the useful life of an HDD through its mechanics and magnetism?

mikeymikec · Sep 26, 2024

gamerfan said:
If I had known this before, I would not have bought 4 HDDs to store files
HDDs fail, flash memory fails, high-capacity optical discs are expensive and require expensive drives and they fail too, LTO media is expensive, so what is the most reliable media with a decent price?

I have the feeling that the wheels fell off the advice you're being given some time ago, but first, you mentioned "archiving": Please elaborate. Are you really talking about *archiving*, ie. the act of moving essential-but-not-currently-needed data from a live system, or are you talking about something else like backing data up (ie. generating a spare copy of it for safe-keeping) which continues to resides in a live system?

If you are talking about archiving, then how long would the archive storage medium be offline for?

gamerfan · Sep 26, 2024

I don't know if it's archiving or backup, I think it's the same reference I have a folder of games, roms and important emulators, I copied them to the HDD and saved the HDD so that I can copy them to the PC in the future. I usually power up the HDD once a year for a few minutes for the mechanics to work I like to keep them for as long as possible

mikeymikec · Sep 26, 2024

gamerfan said:
I don't know if it's archiving or backup, I think it's the same reference I have a folder of games, roms and important emulators, I copied them to the HDD and saved the HDD so that I can copy them to the PC in the future. I usually power up the HDD once a year for a few minutes for the mechanics to work I like to keep them for as long as possible

So correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you want to have a spare copy of data (which is primarily stored on a computer you currently use), just in case something horrible happens to the data on your computer?

gamerfan · Sep 26, 2024

Ken g6 · Sep 26, 2024

Archiving data for the long term, especially cost-effectively, is a challenge. Most people seem to suggest archival optical disks or tape drives.

What's the Best Way to Store Data for Decades or Centuries?

Just in case Skynet wins.

www.howtogeek.com

I tend to think flash memory stored in a freezer might work too. Though it helps I live somewhere with low humidity.

tcsenter · Sep 27, 2024

gamerfan said:
I didn't know that magnetic storage on HDDs was so fragile that it was necessary to make a new copy of the files every year.

Well it generally isn't but in your case given your condition I think maybe you should do it every six months just to be extra sure so that you can sleep.

Data written to HDD should be fine for a couple years. There is no guaranteed solution, except for:

- redundancy (multiple backups)
- periodic verification/refresh of the data
- periodic replacement of the storage media, and with longer intervals, migrating to newer storage tech

If you want to be sure, you'll need to implement one or more of these. AFAIK flipping or losing a bit in a compressed archive is more consequential than uncompressed. The more compressed, the worse the impact could be. I would not store files in some highly compressed format at least not one that doesn't have some kind of robust error detection/correction that offers high chance of repairing mildly damaged archives. If I wanted to use a container file/format to 'house' many many files, I would use a compression utility with compression value set to 0 (no compression).

mikeymikec · Sep 27, 2024

gamerfan said:
yes

So you're just wanting to back up your data.

What was your plan with 4 backup HDDs? Can you elaborate on what your thinking was? Did you have any form of backup system before your purchase of these four HDDs?

gamerfan · Sep 27, 2024

My plan is to have more copies of media for the same files, 4 HDDs with the same files. Is there a difference between the magnetization of a HDD from the 90s and a modern HDD from 2010 to today? How can I prolong the magnetization of the disks?

mikeymikec · Sep 27, 2024

gamerfan said:
My plan is to have more copies of media for the same files, 4 HDDs with the same files. Is there a difference between the magnetization of a HDD from the 90s and a modern HDD from 2010 to today? How can I prolong the magnetization of the disks?

I was more curious about why four drives specifically, whether there was an overall strategy + reasoning for which, which would help provide more useful answers to your questions.

For my home/office PC I've been using hard drives for backups connected via USB for probably more than a decade without any issues, but having said that, I've replaced all of the drives I originally used because I needed larger backup drives so therefore I haven't ever run into the situation of theoretically having a portion of data sitting unread/un-updated for a long period of time (e.g. a decade).

In my backup strategy I also have data being saved to DVD (commonly as a once-per-year backup) as well as multiple backup sets. Diversity of backups is good.

For my customers who have never had a backup system I recommend starting with one backup drive as it's infinitely better than none. Where we go from there depends largely on the customer's circumstances, hence I'm curious as to why you've seemingly gone from zero to four backup drives.

How much data are you needing to back up and what are the capacities of these backup drives?

gamerfan · Sep 27, 2024

Full error Scan HD Túne IS good test health HDD?

mikeymikec · Sep 27, 2024

gamerfan said:
Full error Scan HD Túne IS good test health HDD?

I don't know what this means.

Ken g6 · Sep 27, 2024

gamerfan said:
Full error Scan HD Túne IS good test health HDD?

HD Tune looks like very old software that's not tailored to your drives. SMART testing, which CrystalDiskInfo does, is a drive self-test, so it's perfect for each drive you use it on.

igor_kavinski said:
Looks ok to me. Stop worrying so much!

Just keep running CrystalDiskInfo everyday and if the drive color changes to yellow, that's when you know something is not right.

Case closed.

GO

TO

SLEEP

This.

Now, you seem interested in maximizing data reliability. Storing the same data across four drives sounds like RAID 1. I'm not sure how you'd set up a RAID array, partly because I don't know what other hardware you have/could afford. Ideally you want at least three disks accessed at once, so if one fails the other two have the correct data, but I don't know if your current computer has enough ports, space, and/or PSU connections to do that. You might want a separate Network Attached Storage (NAS) box. I also don't know what RAID controller (hardware or software) would maximize reliability if you have to get a new computer far in the future. Someone else here should know more about RAID and NAS.

Whether or not you RAID, you may also want to maximize data reliability with an archive format that does parity error checking. I've heard WinRAR will do that.

igor_kavinski · Sep 27, 2024

Ken g6 said:
Whether or not you RAID, you may also want to maximize data reliability with an archive format that does parity error checking. I've heard WinRAR will do that.

Yes but I believe he needs to actually buy WinRAR to take advantage of the advanced recovery record feature (Something like 5% of the archive's storage capacity will be used to increase the chances of recovering files from damaged archives).

I think he's either using four drives in JBOD configuration or just manually copying files, using some robocopy sort of script or maybe a file synchronization utility to make sure all four drives contain the same data at all times.

gamerfan said:
I think it's the same reference I have a folder of games, roms and important emulators

That doesn't sound like too important data unless you went to great lengths to acquire certain roms. Most of that you can download again if needed.

BUT

If you still want to store these with peace of mind, invest in a Bluray writer AND buy this:

Amazon.com

That's an M-DISC that supposedly lasts a 1000 years.

M Disc

www.mdisc.com

Regarding the four drive mirroring strategy, if I went with that approach, I would choose 4 drives of different brands and models.

gamerfan · Sep 27, 2024

i teste two hdds hd tune pro and crystal diskinfo

Question test hdd

Steltek

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Ken g6

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What's the Best Way to Store Data for Decades or Centuries?

tcsenter

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