All I know is that memory cards are, for sure, the worst. They always burn/corrupt files so easy.
Depends on what you want to do with the file. For small files I want to back up, I just email them to myself and make a copy to my phone (or desktop if it’s originally from my phone). By the way, if your files are corrupting easily on memory cards, I wonder if that’s because of the file system rather than the quality of the memory card itself. Microsoft got exFAT mandated as the default file system for virtually all SD cards now and it’s prone to corruption.
Github code vault is QR codes on 35mm film, right? That seems like one of the best ways
Almost any kind of modern solid state storage device could potentially last for a few hundred years if properly stored. SSDs, flash cards, USB drives, etc.
That said, the absolute best storage medium for anything you want to keep safe and secure would be physical copies inside a fireproof safe.
Print it out into a series of QR codes on cards, and then store it in a binder with your old pokemon cards. Make sure to draw a pentagram in smeared ash somewhere so that it’s demon proof
Burn to a Blu-ray disc and every eight years copy to a fresh one. Method presumes blank writable Blu-rays will continue to be sold.
Don’t use flash drives, they’re susceptible to the same issue as memory cards, especially when not powered on for a long time.
Check out blu-ray m-discs. They’re ceramic discs that are physically etched on burn (you’ll need a compatible burner). Once burned, any blu-ray drive can read it. They have theoretical lifespans of over 100 years. If you go this route, I recommend storing a blu-ray drive (or two) with your discs. This is exactly what I do for important documents.
Tape is another great option, however it is more sensitive to environmental factors such as temperature and humidity. I also use this for backups.
Hard drives can have bit rot, especially if not powered for long periods. You can definitely still use them as part of your backup solution, but I’d put them into an array or pool of disks which checks for corruption or sync issues. Unraid, for example, can do this. TrueNAS has options for this as well. It’s a rabbit hole to get into them, but if you want to get serious about backups (such as setting up 3-2-1 or even 4-3-2 backups), you’ll probably want something in the middle that manages everything. Just keep in mind that RAID (or Unraid’s array protection) is not a backup on its own. You can use it as part of the solution, but do not ever rely on RAID to protect your data.
321 is what I’ll do. Do you think PenDrives are good?
As in the USB sticks? Those use flash memory, and in my experience have worse durability than a lot of SD cards.
Really? I’m really interested, because I had great experiences with those.
Yeah, especially if they are written to a ton or left sitting on a desk for months, they’re very likely to lose data in my own experience.
Store for what purpose? Fast and short time backup? Long term archival?
Long term archival.
There are archive grade optical media that are supposed to be good for >100 years. They are not cheap, though.
For normal time scales, use HDDs. I’m not current on unpowered retaining times for bleeding edge drive technology, but there are tests and data sheets that provide answers for different models. Consider copying the data to newer models after 5 to 10 years.
Never, ever consider flash-based media for that. SSDs, SD cards and USB sticks are known to lose content when unpowered, some even after just a year without power.
Shout the information into a canyon, the information is stored for however long it takes for the echoes to ebb out
I believe CD/DVD is supposed to last for a long time since the information is stored as a physical feature, and it has a lot of redundancy built in
flash and magnetic storage fades and can more easily get corrupted or damaged
Etching the information into glass slides gives you something that will probably outlive the human species
I’m kind of shilling in this thread, but M-discs are much better than standard discs - they’re ceramic and physically etched. They have theoretical lifespans over 100 years. It’s close to the glass slides you mentioned, although probably not as durable.
Tape Drives last the longest I believe. Always have multiple backups for anything important though.
