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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Long Term Archival

Bing Bailey

Bing Bailey

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Jim,

I know you guys have your plates full but it would be really nice if you guys could solve the long term archival issue. with the amount of data created on a shoot HDD's just aren't safe enough. we need some kind of optical long term archival system. even LTO doesn't cut the mustard. not big enough tape wise and the tapes don't last as long as I'd like. well least not in any enterprise environment. I've had tapes die after a year , that would be disasterous for films shot on RED
 
If you watch the newspaper circular sales at Best Buy and Fry's Electronics, there is always inevitably an external eSata or USB 2.0 drive 750GB or more on extreme sale. For example, a while back I bought about 10 of the same brand (had to go to 3 Best Buys) for $99 each. This is what I use. I typically duplicate each drive so it costs me $200 (in this case) to store 750GB at two separate locations and is much faster and easier to deal with than tape, DVD or etc.

-shooter
 
Hard disks will last long if you re-write them every two years or so. Problem is, where to get the 25 year old hard disk interface for the hard drive today.
 
I think blu ray or holographic storage in some kinda cartridge will have to be the way. I also have dvds I recorded 5 years ago. but thats a bit like playing russian roulette with your original footage and I really want to keep it all. I kno w sony has said blu rays will last 50 years , but I haven't seen enough data. HDD aren't a good long term storage option.
 
So far I think the only truly reliable long term storage option is magnetic data tape (LTO ideally).

Holographic storage offers some hope for the future with high data density, low media cost and future-proof technology, but it's still pretty theoretical.

I personally wouldn't really trust DVDs for long term storage. Hard drives are an inexpensive and easy way (and with low cost it's not difficult to make multiple copies for redundancy. But they are not reliable when left unused for long periods, and there is a concern over interface technology (although the basic IDE standard that has been the standard for the last 20 years is still readable easily, as is SCSI (generally), so it's fair to assume that SATA interfaces will be available for the next 10-15 years.
 
LTO... Use it, you'll like it.

Don't put all the eggs in one basket (that means, don't just make one copy and don't store them all in the same place, dummy).

Hard drive backups (never have just one) are OK for short term and transitional media, I would never trust a hard drive sitting on a shelf, they are not designed for such. The lubricants in the motor bearings are one prime example. Your hard drives will last longer if you keep them active and hope you don't have one that just dies on you.

Optical media... Sensitive to light, even ambient room lighting over long periods of time. So you should store them in a cool, consistant, dry and dark environment for maximum life. They suck as archival media though -- the cost per gigabyte just isn't there to make them attractive. Most people use them because it's convenient and/or they don't archive much. 8GB CF cards shot with RED translate well to an 8GB dual-layer DVD. But I would never recommend this as archival storage, more of the transitional media thing. If you're archiving hundreds of GB's each week, you'd be financially irresponsible to not check into LTO.

As for holographic media... Right now it makes no sense. It is available, but at a steep price. The drives and media are slow. Data longevity is still in question and no one is stamping guarantees on it. Cost per GB for the media alone is higher than Blu-Ray and that just sucks.
 
Brook Willard said:
I figure that if my social security and bank records are stored on LTO... it's probably safe enough for my footage.
Click to expand...

Linear tape is definitely my first choice for passive archives.

Active archiving is a good long-term solution, but it takes a continous effort to keep it safe. You can clone entire RAID sets on a regular basis. One way to do that is to mirror two RAID 5 sets. As long as the disks are copied every couple of years, this will keep them fresh for a decade. During that period, migrating onto newer generation drives will extend the lifespan indefinitely.
 
FWIW I've had a 4GB SCSI drive operate continuously 24/7 for just shy of 10 years.

However after that length of time, a one-hour power outage was enough to kill the momentum and the drive never started up again (we figure the spindle completely seized).
 
These footage banks [or.. what were they called again?] sound good.

You deposit the footage, pay a yearly fee and they keep it for you, as long as you like\pay.

And they're the ones that have to worry about technology, obsolescence and interfaces.

But I don't see a thing like this coming near me anytime soon.
 
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