binary visions Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Just as a consideration for #1, consumer DVDs typically have a shelf life of <5 years. Some last longer, some shorter, but you shouldn't burn a DVD, throw it on a shelf somewhere and consider it "archived."
I think Bifurcator is an IT guy, or at least a tech guy, so he knows but for everyone else, burnable DVDs are simply a layer of dye sandwiched between plastic. When you burn it, you're simply altering that layer of dye - and the dye doesn't last forever, even under ideal storage conditions, which most people don't have.
If you use DVDs for a backup, the key is multiple copies and refresh them every couple years.
There are archival quality DVDs out there, but they're a heck of a lot more expensive.
My backup is pretty simple right now. I subscribe to Crashplan, so my files are backed up off-site nightly. I also have a backup job on my computer that compresses my photo folder and duplicates it to another drive in my running machine. Lastly, about once a week, I plug in my 3 TB external drive and run the same duplication backup job, except to the external drive this time.
That gives me 3 backups - if one hard drive fails, it's easy to just copy from the other drive and keep working. If my computer fails, it's easy to just copy from the USB drive and keep working (I can restore the single week's worth of data from the online service). If I have a real disaster, I go to my online backup. Also, this is all very cheap - online backup is $5/month, and my external and internal drives cost me $100 each.
This year I'm planning on buying a NAS and connecting it to its own high-quality UPS, and doing away with both of the extra duplications, so I'll have one online backup and one local backup.
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