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I am wondering which storage hardware is more reliable these days for storing data which I won't use for years.

I knew there was no immortal storage media. I am not asking for one. All I want to know it's which media is more reliable at present.

I have very bad experience with hard drives, and don't trust hdd anymore. The hard drive can easily have many problems, weak spindle, bad head, scratched platters etc.. Even if some online articles suggest HDD is safer than SSD in terms of storing data, I really don't want to touch HDD. Maybe HDD experts and recovery lab has more trust on these things because they can easily fix problems with some special equipment or by replacing spindle, head, PCB board. My problem with HDD is NOT magnetic field lifespan, I met scratched paltters problems and they can not be easily fixed or kinda not fixable.

Other than hard drives, the only options left might be USB stick and SSD. But when I do research, I fount out SSD might lose data when it's unpowered (not connected to power source) for one or more years. And I am not sure if USB stick has the same problem or not. Because online articles talk about SSD mainly in most cases. So far, I haven't met any data loss on SSD and USB stick in my life. Maybe I am just lucky on SSD/USB and unlucky on HDD.

Btw, even if some articles say SSD can lose data if it's unpowered for a week, some people argue that these concepts are not right and it's based on some extreme situation and will unlikely be a real life experience.

Oh, I forgot about TF cards, but I feel TF cards are similar to USB stick, but I might be wrong.

Btw, I knew the most important thing is doing backups. But I am wondering which storage hardware I should choose to store my data in the first place.

And I don't want to store my data online and want to keep them locally in terms of privacy.

Thank you very much for your advice.

sgon00
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  • “USB drive” is not a distinct storage technology from HDD or SSD. It’s just a different interface. If you mean USB “sticks”, they contain Flash memory (like an SSD) but usually with less redundancy/reliability/endurance than (internal) SSDs. Off course there are also USB drives which use HDD (spinning disks) or SSD. I make my backups on multiple (spinning) HDDs because they are still cheaper per TB than SSDs and are just as reliable in my experience. The key takeaway is that you always need to have at least two backup copies on different media. – StarCat Dec 29 '20 at 08:31
  • @StarCat yeah, I mean USB sticks. I will update my question. I just never have any problems with USB sticks. The oldest USb sticks I use might be like 10 years old. That's why I am suprised that some articles say SSD/USB may lose data when unpowered for some time (even a week). I never meet such problem. – sgon00 Dec 29 '20 at 08:34
  • @XeнεiΞэnвϵς thanks a lot for your reply. I did research this for one day (more than 10 hours). I think it should be more than enough to ask question here. I am sorry that I might use a wrong word because I am not a native English speaker. My language is really different than the way how English handles. For example, in my language, USB drive is USB stick and has no difference. Thanks. – sgon00 Dec 29 '20 at 08:37
  • @sgon00 The accepted answer should point you in the right direction. The solution is to not rely on a single storage medium in a single location. – gronostaj Dec 29 '20 at 08:47
  • @gronostaj thank you very much for the link. I have completed reading it. It does not answer my question at all. Most answers are concepts. They just talk about no storage hardware can last forever. I knew that. My question is wondering and focus on which hardware is more reliable instead of asking for a immortal storage hardware. That question link doesn't compare HDD, USB stick and SSD too. It does not talk about how SSD is reliable when it's unpowered. I mentioned in my querstion that some people think SSD can lose data when it's unpowered for a week etc.. Cheers. – sgon00 Dec 29 '20 at 08:49
  • Have you considered DVD / bluray with redundant blocks ? What kind of budget and volumes are you talking about? – davidgo Dec 29 '20 at 08:54
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    I'm afraid it doesn't exist a single media _"save and forgot"_. Each medium is prone to failures or disasters in time. Unfortunately we need to make deeply ours the concept of _redundancy_ (multiple backup) and periodic control. With different media, one will start to fail for first: then you may replace it with another copy from another media. It is better if you copy/replace the media before it starts to fail, but you have always to have another copy ready in case of failure... – Hastur Dec 29 '20 at 08:57
  • @davidgo Just home use. No big volume required. some TBs. I didn't consider DVD/bluray before because that is kinda "old" technique or at least there is no DVD drive in these days' PCs and laptops. – sgon00 Dec 29 '20 at 08:58
  • @Hastur yeah, I knew there is no "Save and forgot". I am just wondering which one is more reliable. I never meet media starts to fail problem in my life so far. All I see it's the hdd just stopped working and complete failed at once. (scratched platters). Before the disks failed ccompletely, I never have any problems with it. – sgon00 Dec 29 '20 at 09:00
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    HDs are cheap & very reliable so long as you don't drop them. MTTF is just that - an average life-span, not a guarantee. SD cards & USB flash have an alarming propensity to simply fail, completely & utterly, with no warning. Any sensible backup strategy these days would be a **minimum** of one copy in-house, one off-site & one online, encrypted. The smart money is still on HDs for the real-world copies. Optical disks are also a cheap alternative, so long as you refresh the contents every year or three. – Tetsujin Dec 29 '20 at 09:05
  • @Tetsujin thanks a lot for the reply. I may reconsider HDD. The weird part is I never meet any problems on USB stick and SSD. The oldest USB stick I used is about 10 years without any problems. But I met HDD scratched platters problems which can not really be fixed at all. And the bad HDD didn't have any problems before it failed completely. Maybe it's just me. – sgon00 Dec 29 '20 at 09:09
  • You get bluray and DVD disks which are archival grade and may give you the best piece of mind. USB DVD drives are very common and will be around for a while - eg https://www.verbatim.com/prod/optical-media/dvd/archival-grade-gold-dvd-r/ultralife/ claim up to 100 year life (and as a 5 pack you can burn multiple copies and distribute to protect against theft/fire). Note these were the first result of a search - its a fairly common use case. Also software like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchive can bake in a lot of redundancy to protect against some failures. – davidgo Dec 29 '20 at 09:17
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    Actually tb volumes are pretty large and not really amenable to dvd/bluray. Not withstanding your reservations, redundant 2.5" hard drives are likely your best bet - 2.5" because they are less likely to suffer damage from drops then 3.5" ones - small size and laptop use case and all that. – davidgo Dec 29 '20 at 09:21
  • @davidgo thank you very much. I never thought of DVD disks before. I think I can try that option. Looks more reliable than HDD, SSD and USB sticks. At least, it claims up to 100 year life. :) – sgon00 Dec 29 '20 at 09:21
  • @davidgo yeah, I am re-considering 2.5" hdd too. 3.5" hdd is really a NO to me. Thanks. – sgon00 Dec 29 '20 at 09:23
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    Your fears about ssd's left unpowered are also likely overblown. There was a lot of FUD/doom talk all attributable back to a misrepresentation of an SSD study. (https://www.pcworld.com/article/2921590/death-and-the-unplugged-ssd-how-much-you-really-need-to-worry-about-ssd-reliability.html) - tldr - for a 1 year timespan you are fine with SSD, if you can ensure the temperature does not get unreasonably hot. (I still prefer multiple HDDs for the same money though) – davidgo Dec 29 '20 at 09:30
  • @davidgo Thanks a lot for the link and advice. I can buy SSD in a really cheap price here. So the price is not an issue. Based on your suggestion, I think I will duplicate/backup the data on both 2.5" HDDs and SSDs for now. – sgon00 Dec 29 '20 at 09:38

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