Q: Hi! I'm currently using several DVDs to hold my IMPORTANT back-up data. However, aside from it being too inconvenient, I heard that dvds only last for 2-3 years plus it's too humid here in the Phils which might prematurely destroy my disc. I'm using the HP DVD-R Lightscribe Disc. I'm gonna be using it for music, documents, videos, installers, etc. I want something that is RELIABLE and DURABLE that WILL LAST LONG. Now, I'm deciding what would be a better way to store my files for at least the next 10-20 years (hopefully) a.) Portable Hard disk. (What brand and why?) b.) Hard disk (What brand and why?) c.) SD Cards with 16 GB and up (What brand and why?) d.) USB Flash Disks (What brand and why?) d.) Others (What kind and why?) Please state any personal opinions. Thank you so much and God Bless!
A: Your best bet is an external hard drive. After that I would say DVDs. For the Hard drive I would just Google hard drive reviews. Note that you have many options. Just to be flexible I would get a drive that has both USB and Firewire connections. Seagate, Western Digital, IOmega, and LaCie are among the many out there, but again I would look for reviews. A large external hard drive has several advantages. One: you can use it for automatic backup and storage (many come with software for this, and there are also third party options). Two, because it is an external hard drive, you can use it on more than one computer. If it's an internal hard drive, if your computer crashes, your mother board gets fried or whatever, you will have more hassles removing the internal and getting data off of it. Note that NO medium is perfect or completely permanent. I would not use SD cards for long term storage. Or any flash memory card. Although flash has the advantage that it has no moving parts, over the long term they can get corrupted, especially if they get a lot of hard use. There's also the cost factor: a hard drive is a LOT cheaper than a flash memory card in terms of cost per Gigabyte. For example, a 1 terabyte (1024 gigabytes) Wester Digital My Book external hard drive is less than $300. Compare that to prices between about $45 and $100 for a 16 GB SD card. Other factors that go against using memory cards for storage is that Flash memory is not good for running aps off of, while you can do that with an external hard drive. And they are SMALL, which means that they are much easier to misplace or lose (or have stolen, for that matter.) Same problem for USB Flash drives (which is what I think you meant when you said "disks.") They are really intended for temporary storage, as an easy way to transport files. My suggestion is to invest in a couple of large external hard drives (not necessarily a true portable, although they are available and I have a Western Digital 250 GB that I like, it's smaller than a paperback book), maybe even a Terabyte RAID system. And then I'd have a couple of other backups: for photos and such you might want to continue using the DVDs (they DO LAST LONGER THAN 2 to 3 years, unless you are doing something dumb, and humidity is not necessarily a big problem: run fans in your computer room if you can). The third option is to check out one of the on line off-site storage companies; they store things for you on large server type equipment, and you essentially pay for that storage. I wouldn't use it as the only way to store my stuff, and I'd do a lot of research to verify their reliability and service reputation, but it is an option and there are businesses that do this all the time. Hope that helps!