Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives

[Scott Phillips <scottp@xxxxxxxxx>]

I would think that backup that includes a second, different media would
cover all the bases. True secured, offsite storage usually means tape,
basically because it is easy to arrange for and can be kept far enough
physically from any mirrored systems that it would be quite safe from
lightning strikes, fires, and floods, and the like. It isn't very
subject to not working when the box gets dropped, either. Businesses do
this routinely for IT backup. It IS the last resort to use the tapes,
but at least you HAVE a last resort. 


-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 3:45 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives

Steve, I am totally dubious about this as well and I am not suggesting
that
you take a drive and put it on the shelf for a year.

What I'm saying is that you have enough storage in your online,
redundant,
managed, and verified store to hold the content of your archive.

To my way of thinking, the only other alternative for large archives
today
is LTO tape.

Both will require migration of the content from drive to drive or tape
to
tape over time.

This is an IT data management question and must be seen and addressed in
that context. It is no longer doing something and putting it on the
shelf
for 15 years. It becomes active management. The model has changed and if
we
don't change with it, there will be very unhappy people.

As Scott said earlier, it's a shame that we all need to become IT
professionals, but that is, I fear, indeed the case. Now, I need to go
back
to rearranging my online storage systems.

Cheers,

Richard

At 11:36 AM 2/23/2005, Steven Smolian wrote:
>My original comments concerning using external hard drives for
long-term
>storage still hold.  All responses here seemed about frequent
short-term
>usage.  How will they work after not being used for, say, 15 years, a
not
>unusual period of time between placing audio into an archive and
bringing it
>out for retrieval.  I'm still dubious indeed.
>
>Anyone have experience firing up a computer after a 15 year period of
>inactivity?
>

Richard L. Hess                           email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vignettes
Media                           web:   http://www.richardhess.com/tape/
Aurora, Ontario, Canada             (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX