Home
| Calendar
| Mail Lists
| List Archives
| Desktop SIG
| Hardware Hacking SIG
Wiki | Flickr | PicasaWeb | Video | Maps & Directions | Installfests | Keysignings Linux Cafe | Meeting Notes | Linux Links | Bling | About BLU |
On Wed, Nov 05, 2008 at 09:32:39AM -0500, Scott R. Ehrlich wrote: > I'm looking for relatively cheap nonmechanical means to backup up data > from my home Linux box. > > I've been pricing 16GB Compact Flash and SDIO cards. I'd store a > collection of MP3s on one, and the rest of my data on another. On paper, this is a great idea. MTBF for flash devices is a million hours or more. In practice, this sucks rocks. I have a collection of dead CF, SD and USB sticks. > I've ot my eye on a TransCend 16GB CF card (TS16GCF133) and a Transcend 16 > GB SDHC memory card (TS16GSDHC6-s5w). Some manufacturers boast Toshiba > or Samsung memory. How much does that really play a role, and are their > prices relevent, or is it just marketing? Toshiba and Samsung are the two largest manufacturers. Not relevant. > What are people's experiences with using CF and SD cards for data > preservation on the cheap? What is the average data storage life > expectency for solid state devices, such as CF and SD cards, vs their > mechanical equivalents? You've actually got four major technologies: mag disk, mag tape, optical disk, NAND flash. Cost per gigabyte at NewEgg: - DVD+R: 3-4 cents (4.7GB/20c) - hard disk: 10 cents (750GB/$82) - magtape: 10 cents (800GB/$80) + drive - flash: $1.80 (16GB/$29) - BlueRay: $3 (25GB/$8) If you have less than, say, 10 DVDs of stuff, do that. You probably already have a DVD burner, and it will take a while, but it's pretty reliable and very cheap. If you have more than 50GB, buy an external disk enclosure and a spare disk. rsync your filesystem over every so often. Unmount the disk and unplug it between rsyncs. Once a year, rotate your backup into archival storage, your primary into backup, and buy a new primary. -dsr- -- http://tao.merseine.nu/~dsr/eula.html is hereby incorporated by reference. You can't defend freedom by getting rid of it.
BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups | |
We also thank MIT for the use of their facilities. |