one thing to remember, SSD have finite write cycles, eventually the memory cells fail and there aren't any spares left to fill the void. Thats why SSD warranties contain TBW ratings, Terrabytes Written.

HDD on the other hand will not degrade in the same manner, but bearings will fail, heads will crash, controllers will malfunction, etc. there is no perfection, and there is no perfect medium, it all depends on what you want to do with your data and for how long.

 

Some libraries and museums here store everything on Blu-rays. They make copies of them every 5 years.

Microsoft: Quartz glass as the storage medium of the future. https://unlocked.microsoft.com/sealed-in-glass/
Each quartz glass plate could store up to 3,500 films and last for up to 100,000 years. According to the team, large data centers for data storage would then become unnecessary.

 

I have a couple of BluRay burners. Several years ago I did some extensive test (it took me months). Conclusion: This is a very unreliable medium unless I use certain TDK discs imported from Japan (and quite expensive). With most discs from other manufacturers (= all brands normally available on shelves), if I burn them with one burner, another one will not read them even on the same day.

 

I only use Verbatim Blu-Ray blanks and a very good Blu Ray burner from LG. You should also install reliable software.

 

Back then I found some website with measurements showing error rate of various brands. Many advanced users recommended that TDK line of BR media. Initially, I wanted to avoid the hassle and additional costs, but - as I said - I did extensive tests. TDK never failed me, all other brands crapped out at some point. Personally - having nothing but extremely bad experience with Verbatim (their infamous SuperAZO CDR's and DVDR's, and later their BR's), I would not touch anything from this company even with a long pole.

 

I've learnt just a couple of rules working in IT, which I also follow personally.

The "3-2-1" principle: three copies of the data, on two different mediums, one of them off-site.
The "test" principle: if a recovery of data from backup is not tested regularly, it isn't backup at all.

For non-critical data of course this means sweet FA, use anything that's convenient. Personally my data "in use" is on SSDs of various kinds, it's then backed up locally to a HDD RAID array and an external HDD drive. Some stuff is burned to optical media for long term archival and stashed out of my place (and studio stuff is then kept at my place). I do also use cloud storage (encrypted, of course) for some stuff that needs to be available in case a disaster strikes.

The nerd in me would like a tape archiver, but that would be just for show. Tape robots are great fun and cool devices, when they work and are tested regularly, that is.

 

is it right that if u not useing a ssd for rround a year it can lose data cause its eerrm hot electronic magnetic what do i know written and not kind of analog on hdd disk...?!
whats your experience ?

 

Despite having BluRay burners (and many BR discs in my archive), I still use mostly DVD+R's. They are much more reliable.

I always burn 3 copies of the same data and verify every single copy on two different readers (different from the burner). It takes ages, but I sleep well.

 

Those who house their stuff on glass shouldn't get stoned.

 

Coming back to the topic: I have a couple of spare laptops, which have exactly same programs and configurations as my main computer - just in case. I turn them on for at least half an hour every month, so that the SSD's don't lose data.

 

no, you are brainwashed to beleive that. Newer technology is usually just newer til it proves itself. I have bins full of bad tech, that was supposed to be the absolute shit when it came out.

 

I usually image my laptop drives (hdd) to an external hdd for backups. before I convert or restore the image to SSD. then I have a functioning o/s image on hdd, and the original hdd as backups, of course the SSD acquires more data as its used, so a new, or additional (just the changes) backup must be made periodically.

I like Macrium Reflect, have been using it for at least a decade. no problems. (backup software)

 

that made my LCD crack...
harmonic resonance???

 

No, it was angry villagers.

 

I thought I had those scheduled for Thursday. I must talk to my scheduling manager, this is quite distressing.
wonder who is dropping by on Thursday then?

 

I have found that there are varying levels of optical BD WORM discs. Even with the quality Verbatim stuff (or supposed quality stuff) I have gotten some real crap in the past. "Crap" equating to a greater than 70% failure rate when burning from any particular spindle. Used to get the Verbatim BDR's (down to the part number) from cram-a-zon and have since stopped that practice due to the fact that I believe the shit they are selling there re: Verbatim BDR blanks is either bogus (fake) or they are selling off second/third rate merchandise. I have switched my source completely away from cram-a-zon and now have less than 3-5 % fail rate when burning from any spindle of discs. As I said the discs I have been using are ordered using the Verbatim part number and should be the same exact item via either source, but the variance in product quality tells the tale in this saga. As far as burning-ware been using ImgBurn for years with Pioneer drives.

As far as machine backups go, I have 3 portable usb HDD's that I use with acronis backup/truimage to backup image the various machines. After imaging they are validated using the backup image-ware and check summed. Those images are relayed to two "master" and "backup" 3.5" Sata HDD's for storage. Checksums are run before and after copying to the archival discs to check integrity of the archival copies.

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2025 at 9:29 PM

too much heat will kill an sdd, they are electronic devices. if it doesn't kill it, it will shorten its life. I prefer aluminum cases with heatpads to conduct the heat to the case when using external NVME/usb devices.

Magnets won't hurt an SSD unless they are very powerful, still I'd use double sided tape before I used a magnet to attach an SSD to anything at all. I usually use Velcro to stick my ssd in areas without proper mounting or on the outside of my computer case for external NVME/usb drives, it also give plenty of air flow around the device for radiant and conductive cooling.

 

Oh... here we go again haha...
Let me just say from the start, screw hdds. They have their purpose as ie. NAS raid 5/6 arrays etc. and i saw some mates writing/proposing this, but, this not what the OP is asking for. He asked for a single backup drive. I also see some peeps writing some pretty vague things about ssds.
So allow me to demystify what gives with ssd endurance, power off, temps etc.

On an ssd, data is stored in the form of an electric charge on flash memory cells. If the drive is powered off for a very long period, this data will eventually leak out due to -put simply- the gradual discharge of the memory cells. This fact, should be known to all ssd users. For consumer grade ssds, this "off period" is about 1 to 5 years, but to my experience, it is highly unlikely data will survive this long on flash ram although some manufacturers even claim 10 years. But they won't guarantee it within their warranties, so any such claim should be regarded by users as invalid, unless it's backed with a written warranty.
With these said, everything else is in favor of the ssd technology. Performance is on another level as we all know and since ssds have no moving parts, they are not prone to any mechanical failure whatsoever. Room temperature plays a role in keeping ssd data from "leakage". Anything above 30 degrees Celcius for your external ssd will have your drive's data deteriorate faster. For every 10 deg.Celcius increase above 30 Celcius, data retention span is approximately halved, based on published studies. What also plays a role is the type of flash. Typically, 3D Nand based ssds have double the data retention of 2D Nand based drives.
Bottom line?
If you can make it a habit to power on your external ssd once a month or two, it will keep working for as long as how many writes the drive is rated to last.
"Fun" facts:
A good example of a high endurance ssd, is the PNY LX3030 (Nvme/QLC) which comes with a rating of 10000 full re-writes. It does rival even the highest quality enterprise grade hdds in this regard. The particular ssd is widely used in Chia plotting (which wears and tears normal drives within a matter of a few weeks!) and is -to my knowledge- the most resilient "consumer" ssd ever. The downsides of this drive as a considered backup drive, is it only comes at up to 2 tb capacity and its price is most forbidding, i can't seem to find any now but in 2021 upon release, it used to cost from 800-1000 euros for the 2tb drive. And it will also need an external enclosure as it has no external model utilizing this drive that i know of. Still, if the endurance alone is the deciding factor it is the champ in this regard.
In comparison, a high performance drive like the Samsung 990 Pro has a rating of only 600 full re-writes.
Another similar oddity, is the Teamgroup Expert SATA SSD which comes with a 12(!) years warranty and 5000 re-writes for about half the money the PNY drive costs. Again the biggest capacity with this is 2tb.
Lastly, two charts. One with the JEDEC temp ratings.

And a second one with the -supposed- retention time of the two major types of nand flash.

For the last chart, keep in mind, as of quite sometime now, SLC consumer drives are not manufactured. Even the enterprise has almost abandoned SLC drives for cost effective ones that can maintain close to SLC performance but use MLC or TLC flash instead.
Cheers

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2025 at 9:27 PM

Well at least with an HHD when it crashes generally the data is still there and can be recovered, even if you have to spend a lot of money to do it. When a SSD bricks I'm not sure what the situation is there.

 

"Data centers" don't generally (at least when I was working in them) "store" data on site. At least not archival data. The archival stuff was put on DLT tape en masse and shipped to secured offsite storage.