Hard drives are affected by bit rot even when not in use. A disk check every six months would help, but is not a guarantee against data corruption or loss. M-DISCs are physically etched, and should last around a lifetime to a thousand years, depending on who you believe. The catch would be being able to read it in the distant future (in other words, if you’re using M-DISC as a backup solution, you should also have a backup disc drive).
M-Discs are just like Blu-ray storage. However, they are not re-writable, instead being physically engraved with a laser. They are marketed as lasting 1000 years. Get yourself a nice Bluray-writer and you’re all set.
M-discs don’t rot, theoretically they’re one of the best consumer long term storage mediums. I think the practical issue with them on a super long timescale is keeping a functional reader if blurays fall out of fashion.
woah woah woah, Mr. Namedrop. What is this, now? 100GB RW Blu-rays? $57 for a pack of 6?
$57 for 600GB
$100 for a 4TB WD Red
That implies it’s powered. Would it last as long as cold storage? (with running disk checks every six months)
…this is so offtopic, but I must know.
Hard drives are affected by bit rot even when not in use. A disk check every six months would help, but is not a guarantee against data corruption or loss. M-DISCs are physically etched, and should last around a lifetime to a thousand years, depending on who you believe. The catch would be being able to read it in the distant future (in other words, if you’re using M-DISC as a backup solution, you should also have a backup disc drive).
I’d need roughly 15-16 packs to do my entire archive atm, which is nearly $860.
…buuuut, I also see value in doing something like this over time. Say, I buy a pack once or twice a month, back up some data.
Yeah. In my case, I’m mainly only doing this for irreplaceable data, such as documents and photos.
M-Discs are just like Blu-ray storage. However, they are not re-writable, instead being physically engraved with a laser. They are marketed as lasting 1000 years. Get yourself a nice Bluray-writer and you’re all set.
You would have to weigh disk rot vs hard disk mechanical component failure.
M-discs don’t rot, theoretically they’re one of the best consumer long term storage mediums. I think the practical issue with them on a super long timescale is keeping a functional reader if blurays fall out of fashion.
For a WD Red? Get that shingled magnetic shit out of my NAS.
I’m riding the hobo, external bus here, senior admin.