Recommended method(s) for offline file storage?

[The Martian]

Hello again! ^_^
(It has been a while)

Earlier this year my computer suffered a failure that took it out of commission.

Fortunately I was in the habit of archiving my OpenXcom files to physical media so I haven't lost the mod I was working on.

This situation has got me curious as to what everyone else is using for their mod file's offline backup solution.

I used to use USB sticks until one faulted and corrupted some important data, now I'm relying on burning everything to DVDs.
(Takes a bit longer but so far the safety net provided is worth it.)


So what is your preferred method of offline backup?

[BlackStaff]

USB External DD !
And other USB External DD for USB External DD saves ! 

[Solarius Scorch]

GitHub
https://github.com/SolariusScorch/XComFiles

[Kammerer]

RAID-1 Array on a NAS with incremental cloud backups.

[Meridian]

1/ Print family photos once a year (a few individual photos or a small album).
2/ Everything else you don't need. Or can put online.

I deleted everything from my computer... it's a great feeling... I feel free like a bird... and no, I'm not drunk posting.

[Nikita_Sadkov]

I use external USB drives. And still I would advice you against offline storage. When I was charged with the "hate speech" crime in Russia, all my laptops, phones, storage device and paper notes were confiscated as "the tool of the crime". Except for a single USB drive (fortunately having all my backup source code), which was hidden and wasn't found during the search by lazy FSB operatives. Also, if cops find any password protected files, they will likely apply torture to you until you tell them the password.

Since one of the confiscated textbooks had online passwords written in, I had to change all my passwords for all sites or create new accounts. You may ask how did I managed to evade the jail and left Russia in a single piece? Using bribery obviously. But it was just impossible to bribe them into getting back my computing devices.

So yeah, it is a good idea to learn the usage of anonymous online storage services. Steganography in addition to encryption wont hurt either. Some people suggested uploading a popular porn movie with your data hidden inside into the ed2k network. Then it will persist until the extinction of humanity

Then again, if they kill you in prison or during interrogation, you wont need your data afterwards Everything is temporary in this World, so a Buddhist approach of not holding to the things could also work well.

You probably think that it will never happen to you, because you have no problems with police. But they may charge you by mistake or if your room mate or relative gets in trouble with government - they will confiscate all devices in the vicinity, without asking about ownership. Then there are such things like fires and floods.

IIRC, all storage and trust services are required by law to be non-anoymous. But you can still hide your storage device in some forest. Just watch for forest guards. If they find you hiding something, they will call police outright.

[Nikita_Sadkov]

Here, a German guy wrote on a social network that Coronavirus doesn't exist:
https://bnn.de/nachrichten/suedwestecho/demo-aufruf-gegen-corona-auflagen-mann-vorlaeufig-festgenommen

All electronics at his family's apartments got confiscated. That obviously includes USB sticks.

So yeah, be careful with what you store offline - all of your work can be lost to a zealous police ride over some online joke you made 10 years ago.

Same with your savings. If police gets after you, they will first of all block all your bank accounts (they can block accounts in foreign banks too, through Interpol and cross-government agreements). During the home search, cops can confiscate any valuables you have at home "to prevent you from committing further crimes". So the only way to secure your savings would be cryptocurrency. Although there are also blockchain filesystem, which you an use to save important things by paying in cryptocurrency.

[The Martian]

@BlackStaff:
I've seen several newer models of external drives that claim they are very shock resistant which negates the only real drawback those devices used to have.

I'll have to research how long a drive would keep vs a burned DVD. DVDs have some pretty good staying power based on this Wikipedia article I read on it.

From what I've read it sounds like there are different problems for long term storage for SSDs and HDDs:

(Solid State Drive)
If left without power, worn out SSDs typically start to lose data after about one to two years in storage, depending on temperature. New drives are supposed to retain data for about ten years. MLC and TLC based devices tend to lose data earlier than SLC-based devices. SSDs are not suited for archival use.

(Hard Disk Drive)
If kept in a dry environment at low temperature, HDDs can retain their data for a very long period of time even without power. However, the mechanical parts tend to become clotted over time and the drive fails to spin up after a few years in storage.

According to a study performed by Carnegie Mellon University for both consumer and enterprise-grade HDDs, their average failure rate is 6 years, and life expectancy is 9–11 year

When stored offline (unpowered in shelf) in long term, the magnetic medium of HDD retains data significantly longer than flash memory used in SSDs.

I've got some archived DVDs that have software I use occasionally that still read after 15 years, so this format is good for archiving... (Or maybe I just got lucky?) but an external drives smaller physical space and ability to re-write files would make it a lot easier to work with for backups that are expected to be accessed and altered continuously over a short period of time.
(Like an OpenXcom Mod's sourcecode.)

*Take the above quotes with a grain of salt, they are from Wikipedia so additional sources should be consulted.


@Solarius Scorch:
When it comes to online storage I'm always worry about the host either deleting it or changing their buisness model and denying me access.

The convenience of it is very tempting though.


@Kammerer:
That is a excellent setup you've got. Multiple harddrives all duplicating the data from your primary drive. So if there is any data failure on your primary drive any of the secondary drives in your array will have the lost data archived thus allowing it to be recovered.

Cool stuff!


@Meridian:
I completely understand that. Just blanked and installed an OS(Goodbye Windows, hello Linux!) on this new machine to get backup and running. A freshly setup computer is accompanied with a pleasant feeling. ^_^


@Nikita_Sadkov:
It is a disturbing era to live in.

Fortunately I'm just trying to store OpenXcom mod files so I hopefully won't need to worry about that at the moment. But still. . . >_< that is messed up.

[DosAmiga94]

Unfortunatly my only backup is by the default macOS backupplan.
This might not be smart thinking that i will consider another OS for the upcomming computer ...

So this thread ist very helpfull but thinking about all the work to save my files I will end up doing nothing

ciao