A Guide to Using BluRay Discs as Cold Storage Backups/Archives - Is Optical Media Dead?

Improve your audio w/ AntLion ModMic: geni.us/modmicaff
As you may have been able to tell by my multitude of videos regarding storage issues, I've been in dire need of some reliable "Cold Storage" backups for my data. I have found such a solution in using BluRay discs as a backup. In this video, I show you how to back up your data to BluRay - Including steps on splitting your data into 7-Zip Archives, and creating Parity files for redundancy using MultiPar.
Verbatim BD-R 25GB 50 pack - geni.us/IKgA
You also need a BluRay Writer, too - geni.us/GGSl
7-Zip: www.7-zip.org/download.html
MultiPar: multipar.eu/practical-hints/b...
Alternate link:
github.com/Yutaka-Sawada/Mult...
DVD dye vs Blu-ray dye - Organic vs Inorganic optical dyes - LTH vs HTL BD-R -- www.digitalfaq.com/forum/media...
r/Datahoarder: / datahoarder
SirCrest: / sircrest
Related videos:
Amazon Cloud Drive Unlimited is NO MORE | I'm losing 40TB of Data -- • Amazon Cloud Drive Unl...
A Band-Aid for my Storage Woes! - Synology DX513 Cinematic Unboxing -- • A Band-Aid for my Stor...
MY NEW "EDIT BAE" NAS - Synology DS916+ Review -- • MY NEW "EDIT BAE" NAS ...
Edited w/ Premiere Pro CC: goo.gl/rJwkQjcc
Thanks for watching!
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[@Gocast2]

A very underrated feature of optical is the fact that it's Write Once Read Many (aside from RW), which means it's completely resistant to accidental deletion/formatting, or getting encrypted with ransomware.

[@dlarge6502]

RW discs, if formatted with ISO9660 also gain a degree of WORM capability as that filesystem is not capable of rewrites. UDF however would certainly allow that. Code that was attempting to overwrite files intentionally would need to be sophisticated to modify an in place ISO9660 filesystem even on an RW disc which although technically possible, it's very unlikely that malicious code would even be written to do that.

[@servus_incognitus]

So, is there no way to edit the archives?

[@noblelies]

I still use M-DISCs, but only for protecting the most critical data that would make me feel borderline suicidal if I lost it.

[@nid274]

create multiple copies on different brand disks and different media like ssd, hdd...if all goes down at once then you are the chosen one!!

[@ToastyBros]

been on a binge lately with your videos. Your style keeps me coming back. Keep it up man

[@EposVox]

Thanks! I appreciate it :)

[@MrMoebius7]

The narrator's voice,clear concise description and your use of two of my favorite free software,7-zip and imgburn has earned a like and sub. Thank you 👍

[@ZippletTech]

Thanks for the video. I've been doing this myself for the past 5 years ever since I discovered that blu ray media had fallen to affordable prices. Back in the early 2000s I used CD-R and DVD-R media. I stopped for a while and used NAS's but they require electricity and constant maintenance, not to mention they can be knocked out easily with a power surge. Now I'm back to optical for my cold storage - it's perfect as long as you come up with a system for storing the discs. I think more people should look at this!

[@tommik1283]

I personally use slim jewel cases to protect my Verbatim HTL BD-Rs. The main reason is that the disc surface is not in contact with anything over time since it is the hub that holds the media in place. When I was using sleeves the surface of CD-Rs would suffer a lot. It tended to stick together with the sleeves over time. Also the design of jewel cases' hub is considerably better than that of video CD cases. In fact 2 of my CD-Rs got damaged by video CD cases' push-up hub that was simply too wide and broke the inner hole of the disc! Those inner hubs are really different on jewel and video cd cases. Simply put: go jewel!

[@yoyodynepropulsion.systems]

This is a similar process I use. I use Verbatim BD-XL discs though, at 100GB a piece, I don't need as many discs. I also use DVDIASTER to create parity data that is written to every disk. I used VeraCrypt to create encrypted containers to put my files in. I've gone from original CD-Rs from 10-20 years ago, to DVDs, to dual layer DVDs, on to BD-R and now BD-XL for archival storage. Works great. I have yet to have a disc fail, but I also have copies on Google Drive through G-Suite that gives me "unlimited" storage.

[@liameneuk]

Isn't BD-XL write once only? If so, how it could still be writable after veracrypt created a container in it?

[@yoyodynepropulsion.systems]

@@liameneuk no, this for cold storage. Once you have your container full, you write it to the disk and put it away until one day you need it. You can still unencrypt the container and get the files out.

[@quarteratom]

@@liameneuk You create and fill the VeraCrypt container on your hard drive, and once you're done with it, you write it to the disc. After that you cannot change it, but you can still mount it as read-only.

[@AnalogFoundry]

Which BD burner do you use for BD-XL?

[@yoyodynepropulsion.systems]

@@AnalogFoundry LG WH16NS40

[@dee1380]

Thanks! I needed a way to backup huge raw home video files. I didn't want to cut them down to make them fit on a disc. Glad I found your video.. What's a good external blu-ray burner to buy? Thanks in advance

[@davegongwer106]

Mikethis is exactly what i'm looking for however, at age 69 going on 70 my mind is not as sharp as (i'd like it to be) yours and again photos/music is all i want

[@Henkibojj]

Hi Dave. I just wanted to say he does make a good case for the BD-R for many reasons, but he also makes a sales pitch which is a bit on the high-end user spectrum, making it more complicated than it needs to be. If you want to back-up photos and not-insanely-large video files, there is no need for 7zip or any other software. Simply open a burner software like Nero, select your files/folders on your computer, drag them into the drop area for your potential disc until it's full, then click burn. Essentially, at least. The video explains the same procedure, but for entire storage mediums of enormous sizes that have to be broken down first in order to fit on a disc. That's way more advanced than the average user needs to know. One 25 GB disc will roughly have room for 3,000 to 5,000 photos, depending on the size of the photo files. Happy burning!

[@theguyordie]

Awesome! I love it. I feel conflicted though because I've been on a quest to simplify my life lately- which includes purging data that I just find cluttering my mind space and hdd

[@EposVox]

Purging such data in and of itself is not simple, nor are backups ever simple xP

[@rodrich182]

I have 15 year old PS3 games that still work flawlessly. It seems optical storage is ideal for long term storage; it has the advantage that you don't need to plug it or maintain it every so often; no data breaches; and it's affordable. I'll add this as a back up to my back up external hard drives. Thanks for the info.

[@csamd9049]

I have a CD of 1980s music that works like new and is expensive.

I've heard DVDisaster gives you a better error correction, but you need to create the iso images first and then inject the error correction info after. Takes more time, but it can recover data even if the filesystem descriptor gets unreadable on the disc. It works with BR as well.

[@icepee9252]

Yes, or better still, use both. That's what I do. It does mean that for a 25GB disk I reduce the data capacity to 10-12GB. So, all the 7z volumes are set to, 10GB, I then add Par data, so I have up to 18GB per disk. I then burn to iso, and feed the resulting iso into dvdisaster. Then write to disk.

[@ciupydci]

Yes! Long live Blu-Ray!

[@DanielSRosehill]

Thanks man. Also love the data hoarders sub. Been looking into M disks and beginning to come to the same conclusion. I currently use an NAS but want to transition to cold / archival storage as mostly its just backups of youtube videos whose originals I'll hopefully and probably never need to access.

[@skywalkerhunter95]

i use the computer-harddrive-cloud-flashdrive for moving data, things that are constantly in use. things like movies, songs, games and videos usually just being accessed very rarely, but i dont want to loose them because getting all of them from zero would be a painful task. so, i burn them on disc. but i never save data on double layered discs...

[@JonnySelProductions]

This is very useful! Thanks for making this Adam! 😃

[@EposVox]

Thanks for watching!

[@JonnySelProductions]

You're most welcome. 🙂

[@pt9009]

Great video and great channel, long time fan here! I've also found that these HTL Blu-Rays seem to be our very best long term cold storage solution at our present day. I've been using K3B on Linux to author and burn my data discs using a Panasonic external drive. I haven't bothered with parity or archiving as I want each disc to be totally independent of each other in functionality. Also, anyone wanting to do this should include fun little TXT notes on each disc so that when you return to these many years later you can crack up as you remember writing the notes! More people should look into backing up their data on these :)

[@RayMak]

Thank you so much for this

[@Mastermind12358]

Just make sure you keep your data in at least two or three places. People say discs are crap and don't last, but I'm finding discs that were burned twenty years ago and they all seem to work just fine.

[@philixer6769]

Discs are a brilliant way to backup your data, but people often buy just some low-quality ones, or they're storing them unproperly, or both. Get some Verbatim or Sony, M-Disc for super important data (they say they can last 1000 years! Jesus was born 2000 years ago). Probably storing them in paper sleeves will be ok, but if you'll use it often, or plan a longer storing them, then it is a better idea to use plastic cases instead.

[@Starhartdeer]

Just as long as you didn't use stamped sticker labels where the adhesives screw up the plastic over time :( my poor tv show collection

[@Mastermind12358]

@@Starhartdeer Yeah its best not to put stickers or something like that onto the disc. I go so far as not even writing on them.

[@buniculflorin]

highest quality Verbatim and Sony DVD stored in the spindle they came at a constant 20 to 25 celsius storage room, completely away from sunlight after 10years of storage they glued to each other and some of them got damaged, while the one stored in individual paper sleeves or plastic cover they came with are still in perfect order.

[@csamd9049]

fairy tales.

[@egerjlgherg2281]

Can you please tell me more about the disc parity.

[@fabioamado6725]

Hello, I have found your video. I am looking for the best software to help me archiving my files and maintaining versions. Can you do a video on that? It can be either Mac or Windows. I would like a software the kept track of the files and different versions of them, and be able to restore quickly, pointing me the name of the BluRay I should insert. And for the future-proof, the format should be readable by other software. Do you have any idea? Thank you!

[@DaN3xtEconomist]

How about dual layer DVD? Are they reliable?

[@DaN3xtEconomist]

Question. I am using the Verbatim BD R discs to back-up files. I read I have the HTL Discs. After the burning completed, the color of the disc (underneath part), turned blueish. Is this normal?

[@PrecioustheMovie1]

hell yeah, great ideas

[@Keranu]

That MadMic comes with the same exact carrying case e-cig kits include.

[@troyforce1]

Now money is not an object to me. Does condensing media affect the longevity of the data? Is it safer to not condense data? Also, could you please explain to me what you mean about parity storage? Thanks!

[@teslaliveus6355]

How do u make Blu ray disc using old VHS captured shows etc with a menu

[@oDJOldskull]

At 5:02 @EposVox you did mention that you use IMGBurn in order to burn main "image splits", yet what do you exactly mean? You mean that you first create packed data using 7zip, which is split into many parts and then you create an image file which you... wait I've got lost :) What actually happened in there? Also, would you still recommend this method for cold storage solutions? Thanks in advance :)

[@Mae-nr7wr]

i recommend using winrar instead of 7z, 7zip is good for everyday use, but for long term storage winrar has features that protects against bitrot and other things

[@nlingrel]

Your solution has a single point of failure: 7zip. It will likely be around and available for a long time, but I would try to figure out a way to put all the necessary install files for it onto a disc that stays with your collection.

[@juura680]

I have CDRs stored with pics from the mid 90s, still work perfect. i think after every 10 years you can transfer the data to a new CDR set or bluray and i plan to store an extra copy in a safe at my bank.

[@EposVox]

Sure I have a good plenty that still work perfectly and I have plenty that don't. Sample size of 1 doesn't really mean anything

[@csamd9049]

@@EposVox All more or less average quality CD-Rs recorded in the 90s still work, and of good quality in perfect condition (easy to check) as if they were recorded yesterday.

[@dlarge6502]

​@@EposVox Never in 30 years have I found an optical disc that failed. Pressed or burnt. The ONLY exception might be my LTH verbatim bd-r, which hasn't developed significant LDC and BIS errors yet but I can see they are increasing almost every time I scan it as a curiosity.

[@jerrysamuels1113]

Thank you. I find your information useful.

[@RAG3Xbox]

Hi newbie here who is looking to make my own bluray of a show i like to keep for years to come and to rewatch for years to come and not cold storage backup but just wondering what people would recommend in this situation regarding what bluray discs i should get and what bluray disc reader etc pls

[@starstudio8402]

If you want some blu rays that will last for a long time mdisc can last like 1000 years www.amazon.com/Archival-Verbatim-M-Disc-Inkjet-Printable/dp/B01B99WWXI/ref=asc_df_B01B99WWXI/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=242074892521&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=360727848682186270&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016911&hvtargid=pla-469920438204&psc=1 I’ve heard this writer is pretty good but I have not used it for my self www.amazon.com/Pioneer-BDR-XD07B-Blu-Ray-Player-Burner/dp/B07ZTY8QRM/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?dchild=1&keywords=external+blu+ray+drive&qid=1625811654&sr=8-16

[@wright96d]

Great tutorial! Just bought a spindle of BD50s to try this with!

[@wright96d]

I think a better way to have parity for future archives would be to create 7z archives that fill the discs to the last byte (50049712128 bytes for BD50) and create one or two discs full of parity files. I initially chose not to use parity files in order to fill the discs up all the way, but I might do this instead. Though with all the tech in these discs, and proper storage, I'm just not sure how necessary parity is.

[@quarteratom]

@@wright96d Parity is useful if only 1 or 2 of your discs break, then you still can recover. Also it can help you with verification. But if more discs break, than how much redundancy you got, then it's all gone, you can't recover anything. When you keep a backup, there's a small chance, that in a bunch only 1 or 2 discs break, so it might be useful to create parity discs. Especially if you have many discs, adding 1 or 2 extra discs don't add much to the cost. But it's also possible that more discs break, so you can't rely on parity alone. You should always keep multiple backups in multiple locations. Parity doesn't increase the number of your backups, but can increase the health of one of your backups by a small margin, so sometimes it might be worth it. You can always calculate and compare the cost of adding redundancy to the chance that redundancy will do something, and decide based on that.

[@PuchoWebSolutions]

Hello from New York City! On a 25 GB Blu-ray, how can a searchable index of the contents of the disc be created to quickly find files? Thank you for sharing your experience.

[@OblateSpheroid]

I’m sure there are better answers for this, but you could just take screenshots or make lists of the contents of each disk on a master computer and search that.

[@quarteratom]

Great tutorial, great idea for the redundancy. Although, for my usecase I'd write files directly to the disc, so individual disc still contain useful data, even if many other discs get damaged, and it's also easier to read. But it'd be also harder to manage, take more time to set up, more inefficient. For big backups your method is probably better.

[@jumbo999614]

Keeping important files in HDD is a risk. One time my HDD format suddenly became RAW for unknown reason. I was able to make it usable gain but files/folders disappeared forever.

[@EposVox]

Indeed, that's what backups are for.

[@SquidkidMega]

I heard that storing disks in padded sleeves can damage the discs in the long term, and that jewel cases are better...what is your take on this?

[@MrRoko91]

​@@SquidkidMega The main issue with the sleeves in the past was that the discs would scratch very easily but for modern Blurays with hard coat I wouldn't worry about that. The other issue is that they can collect moisture which is also bad (obviously) for the disc lifespan but you can never be sure how much that plays a role. Personally I have DVDs burned more than a decade ago in both disc spindles and slim jewel cases and all that I tested recently were completely fine so I would bet on that (and of course the normal size jewel cases) :)

[@angelg3986]

@@MrRoko91 Wow, how you did this - mine were self-erased (partially). Some CD-Rs I have also self-erased and I lost non-mainstream music tracks.

[@MrRoko91]

@@angelg3986 I have even dual layer DVD ones from poor quality brand (Ridata) which I burned back in 2010 and this summer in process of moving some of them I forgot them in my car glovebox for the whole summer around temperatures reaching 40°C outside and maybe 50°C+ in the car... still 3 months later in this conditions all 3 of them read just fine without even slowdowns 😅 Tbh I also had bad experience with CDs in the past, but those were mostly manufacturing defects allowing the oxidation to ruin them ('cuz they are not sealed properly). Thankfully DVD's were proving much more reliable, even the cheap ones.

[@HalkerVeil]

Blue-Ray will do the job but not as well as M-Disc. It's the difference between scratching your info on a stone. Or using a hammer and chisel.

[@capp00]

Shoot, I still have 3.5" floppy disks that still work just fine and I've had those for more than 20 years. lol I still use physical media for backups. I burn to DVD, I use extra HDDs to store important info, and then lock it in my fireproof safe.

[@dlat1825]

Floppy discs must eventually become unstable because they are magnetic.

[@richardlighthouse5328]

@@dlat1825 Also hard drives(they are magnetic too) and SSD(they lose charge overtime)

[@user-zw6tk5ry5t]

​@@richardlighthouse5328 I have two 10years old HDD, WD3200AAJS (ten thousand hours) Hitachi HTS545050A7E380(8 hundred hours),they all work and no bad sector.all the video can play and copy to my new HDD,I m still afraid it will lost data,i will writing to disc.

[@richardlighthouse5328]

@@user-zw6tk5ry5t Good choice.

[@embuh456]

Is there any other advantage to zip, for example my music than use the whole disc space. And would’t it be better to just copy music as it is because archives can get corrupt?

[@eternaya]

If the zip won't get corrupted, then the files inside are 100% fine.

[@quarteratom]

Zipping can be easier, faster to set up, more space efficient; especially for large backups with many discs. But indeed the archives can get corrupted or some discs can go bad, and then you can lose everything. If things go bad with your backup, having individual files on the discs can give you a chance to get a partial recovery at least, in some situations. No matter your method, it's always important to have multiple backups.

[@jasonr5903]

So how does this compare to say archival DVDs? I guess you could upfront cost would be higher if you don't already own a Blu-ray drive on you PC.

[@EposVox]

From everything I read, the BluRays should hold up mostly the same. The same tech that went into making those special also went into most BluRays like this. Upfront cost would only be higher for the literal initial purchase - $ per GB of BluRays is SUBSTANTIALLY lower - for a $40 BluRay burner you earned your savings back by buying the first 50-pack spindle.

[@ptdavidson87]

Been doing something like this for years. Works great for the stuff you don't need super quick access to. I have binders full of work going back to the late 90's with cds. And lately Blu-rays. Very low failure rate. Quality media is a must.

[@tonylouisvisionvideography3469]

Can I burn my 4K digital video data files straight out from my Panasonic GH5s onto a BLU RAY DISC and retain the 4K Quality.

[@skywalkerhunter95]

yes you can

[@PatrickChapmanuk]

I hear a lot that you must use a commercial Blu Ray writer. Otherwise they suggest archival DVD R+ on the smaller 4.7GB disks are more sustainable. Do you know much about this or whether the M rated Blu Ray writer would suffice as a commercial/sustainable writer?

[@EposVox]

I've never seen that anywhere, not sure how that would affect anything given it's the physical discs themselves that matter

[@PatrickChapmanuk]

@@EposVox I gather they consider the consumer Blu Ray writers as unreliable compared to consumer DVD R writers writing on M rated DVD R+ or the lesser JVC patented disks. But it's probably just a bit of overkill on their part.

[@butmunchass]

@@PatrickChapmanuk I heard that consumer Blu Ray writers weren't reliable either and given the cost disparity between consumer and commercial writers I'd say that's likely true. However, I don't know if the disks themselves burned with consumer drives aren't reliable (maybe the consumer laser isn't as strong or accurate?) or whether it's just that the consumer drives break after 50-100 burns which has been a common situation. Although I've also heard that the consumer drives that you can buy today have improved since years ago.

[@mufeedco]

Thank you ☺

[@EposVox]

Thanks for watching!

[@XRXONE]

what if i do not have a blu ray writer drive?

[@juanduenas1943]

When I was in college we were told Blue-ray is the best long term storage option.

[@jmtrad1906]

I remember when were told CDs had 100 years life span. In the end depends on how you storage it and the quality of the disc manufacturing

[@juanduenas1943]

@@jmtrad1906 Well that can be said about any stroage medium.

[@dsego84]

@@jmtrad1906 I remember being told 50 or 100 years as well. But I think this was only ever meant for factory-pressed CDs, not the recordable ones and even less for rewritables. Afaik the factory-pressed ones have actual grooves and the ones you burned at home had a chemical layer or something.

[@quarteratom]

Redundancy, as in having multiple backups, is the best long term storage option. BluRays are great for one, because they are relatively cheap (the drives not so much), pretty durable, and there's less chance they'll go bad while just sitting, than hard drives for example, you don't have to check them that often. You have to pay attention to how and where you store them. Optical media got better with each new technology. DVDs are more durable than CDs, M-DISCs and BluRays are more durable than DVDs. Right now I see many old burned CDs failing, so it's important to archive those, but BluRays are much better than CDs were. But multiple backups are essential (for most things), and it might help to switch up your backup media, so if one goes bad, the others might still be fine. Even if you have multiple BluRay backups, it might be useful to switch up the batch you use for the different backups, so if one turns out to be bad, the other still might be fine.

[@worawatli8952]

I came to this video looking for what people's experiences with BD-R has been, this gave me more confident,I have a few written like ten years ago that is still working. And seeing many people confirming it make me want to put more stuff on to them, freeing up my external HDDs. BD-R make a lot more sense than HDD when it comes to long term cold storage.

[@eternaya]

Same here. I've been migrating all my files to BD-R even if will take 1-2000 BD-R.

[@charlesc5950]

In 2020 how much cheaper is this per gigabyte compared to running a pair of 8tb hard drives? Seems like the cost is pretty much the same now, no? Would be interesting to see a study comparing the long term reliability of a pair of hard drives checked regularly for integrity vs optical media.

[@dlarge6502]

It's not the cost per GB that matters. It's the cost of hours of work redownloading the 8TB of data when the drive dies.

[@martinlutherkingjr.5582]

@@dlarge6502That should be a non-issue if you have a reasonable backup strategy.

[@GabrielMartinez-pe6ln]

Is there anything wrong with using the Blu-ray m-disc?

[@EposVox]

Nope

[@thieluar]

I have a question for you. What about ssd drives? And I mean as in taking a 1tb ssd drive, putting my critical data inside it, placing it inside a protective case, and then never touching it for 20 years unless I need to take the data out. How long would that SSD last?

[@pt9009]

SSDs and other flash devices appear to eventually lose bits of data after a long period of time

[@e98r5u3ufhsdl]

nope dont do this. ssds are not good for long term storage. use bluray discs, and also have additional copies of the files like on a cloud, or hard drive.

[@dlarge6502]

SSD drives can wipe themselves clean within a few years. New drives, that are only ever used once are only described as surviving 10 years at a guess. they could last much longer but nobody has tested it unlike with optical media and other media like tape

[@LansaDiag]

Whats that tiny screen underneath your monitor?

[@thegreatoutagesign9204]

its a streamdeck

[@ArthursHD]

You can compress JPGs more without losing quality by converting to JPEG XL or compressing with 7zip with the MFilter plugin

[@UserCraft1]

How do I open the Archive after burning? Do I have to cope the parts to a Hard Drive?

[@icepee9252]

Yes, if you go over the capacity of a single disk.

[@basilsalazar3489]

Is Sony dvd-r a good archival media? And does unburned dvd-r degrade fast or slow?

[@fatih976]

DVDs that come all ready pressed with data from the factory are degrading slower and can have if stored correctly a lifespan of up to 50 years. Burned media has a lifespan of usually 10 years. The best way to archive data is to use M-Disc since they can last up to 1000 years.

[@basilsalazar3489]

Fatih what about unburned or unused dvdr's? Do they degrade fast?

[@fatih976]

If you keep then in a room with normal temperatures, no sunlight and no wet air then they shouldn't degrade fast.

[@basilsalazar3489]

Fatih well it's 27.7 degrees celsius. But I keep it on a dark cool cabinet. So what's your approx. Time that they'll last? How many years? Cause im still new to dvdr's.

[@fatih976]

Under that conditions they should last at least 30 years.

[@DiegoDourado]

Eu faço o mesmo!

[@LemonExtras]

I would love to hear more detail about how you split up the data into 25 GB packs

[@EposVox]

(Once 7-Zip is installed it adds options to the right-click context menu.) Select the files/folders you want to add to the archives. Right-click: 7-Zip -> "Add to Archive" Towards the bottom - I showed on video - you can choose to split in certain file sizes. You can enter your own or choose presets and I chose the 25GB BD preset.

[@LemonExtras]

EposVox so if I made say a 3tb zip file, would it split it into 25Gb chunks for me?

[@EposVox]

Yes

[@LemonExtras]

EposVox that's sweet. Thanks Adam!

[@liellplane145]

use jewel cases to float the disc away from contact surfaces

[@voldy3565]

So blu ray discs bigger than 100gb exist? 150, or 200gb maybe?

[@dlarge6502]

128GB

[@ricolau3864]

how to using BluRay Discs as Cold Storage Backups for 200TB ??

[@dlarge6502]

Why would you do that? Sort out your junk data from the real stuff. Archive the real stuff.

[@YPO6]

I read somewhere that 7z and zip are bad choices for long term storage, but rar is ok.

[@werkis2]

Isnt it safer to just burn photos witout putting them in split zip arhives ?

[@AbdulHannanAbdulMatheen]

👏🙂 Great video

[@EposVox]

Thanks! 🙂

[@GabrielMartinez-pe6ln]

Try the m-disc

[@cristianmicu]

i had high quality dvd's - verbatim kept at dark with no scratch and pristine, which my reader couldnt id them after 5 years in cold storage (data lost) after that i lost my confidence in the technology in the same time i have 15 years hard discs that i use them everyday and they have all sectors intact working, not even one sector bad so yeah, rest assured your cold archive will be available when your HDD is done

[@cristianmicu]

@Sir Dong Dinglesworth III i dont understand what are you trying to say. in any case i had hard drives for 25 years and no one ever failed.some of them i remove them myself because the capacity became irrelevant through years, but no one ever failed me. i guess i have an art of using hard drives

[@viniciusdelima8192]

The big problem of backup data on Cloud is administration politics on allowed files. Someday i know a history of a well know storage service that deleted all the user files because find some download bought video that was originally legal buyed. I think diffcult to deal with it. Good media BD discs and external hard drivers still good way to backup data. it takes more time and resources but still good way. the secret is do the same backup two different ways.

[@jasondrummond9451]

What about M-Discs?

[@Opossum_queen]

it's practically the same.. only M discs should "theoretically" last a lot longer.

[@hoteny]

Wow my like really old cursor, you are using it. I even forgot what its called now :(

[@Khyree_Holmes]

my MEDIA is on FIRE!

[@EposVox]

lol

[@Ty3516]

i have dvds that i burned in 2004 and they still work

[@Easelgames]

Honestly I just hope that in the future SSD drives will be the best and easiest backups. Since they're fairly large and fast, as well as being not fragile and not having to worry about it dying. Only issue right now of course is price. Though that won't last forever.

[@EposVox]

Ehh, rewriteable medium as long-term storage will virtually always run the risk of corruption or erasure

[@Easelgames]

Erasure is a good point. Maybe in the future someone will come up with a form of "disk" that is permanent, cheap, yet not re-writable, but still in a "flash" state.

[@werkis2]

My SSD just died without any warning, well hope new generation SSD will be better. If it were mechanical HDD i may notice problems (sounds, performence, disk check warning etc)even could fix few things like PCB controller, stuck head etc even use last resort data center but in SSD case you are screwed totally! As far thumb drives I don't trust USB 3.0 thumb drives while I have USB 2.0 drives from 10 years ago still working fine, 3x USB 3.0 failed for me very fast!

[@NintenloupWolfFR]

The thing is, the cells cannot keep their charge really long, and since companies are pumping more and more state for each cell to have more capacity, it'll become even worst. SSD is the worst choice to do backup.

[@MrRoko91]

@@NintenloupWolfFR Exactly what I was about to say 👍

[@SirCrest]

Ayyyyyy

[@EposVox]

AYYYYYYYYYYYY

[@ahah1785]

after all my dvds rotted away i will never use optical media ever again....cassette tapes now thats totally different i still have some from the end of the 60's and they play just fine

[@icepee9252]

What do you use for digital data archive, then?

[@tudormarcu2006]

@@icepee9252 data tapes are still being used today for long term archiving. Look up LTO8 - 30TB capacity. Yes, TB, in compressed mode.

[@icepee9252]

@@tudormarcu2006 I'm still unconvinced with tape. They may /use/ tape for archiving, they may not /achieve/ it. Problem with tape, for archive is threefold: 1) the medium makes much more contact with read/write mechanism [not as much with optical media]. 2) The media and drives are expensive [not so with optical media]. 3) There is much more format obsolescence. With LTO, a new generation of drive can only read the prior generation of tape [my blueray drive can still read CDs]. The downsides of optical media is bit-rot. But you can minimise and compensate for that.

[@densetsu4286]

Which is why you use mdisc. Not all optical is the same dude. An mdisc is rated to last 1000yrs before disc rot sets in. Disc rot is due to organic matter that makes up the die which is what data is being burned to. Mdisc uses inorganic material to burn in the info. There is no disc rot. Those discs will out live you.

[@starstudio8402]

@@densetsu4286 mdisc would out live multiple generations of your family lmao

[@HermanIdzerda]

In the video I saw how you wrapped a BR-D in a piece of paper with the printed side on the inside. I would not do that. If the paper was printed on with a laser printer you could get transfer of the black plastic letters to the optical media, rendering it unreadable. Just pick up a nice case or slimline jewel cases, they're made for media storage and they're cheap as well.

[@MrVidification]

The university of shanghai last week was reported to have created a 125TB disc format, of standard thickness, double sided.

[@EposVox]

Wow

[@MrVidification]

I won't give up my dvd drive just yet until I find out how long these new discs take to burn :) ...@@EposVox

[@Mae-nr7wr]

@@MrVidification if they are super cheap per GB i dont care if burning takes a long time

[@eternaya]

I won't wait for another 10-15 years to save my files. We already have M-Disc which lasts 1000 years.

[@joeglennaz]

About three minutes and I was totally lost. I was really excited for the topic but I have no idea what you’re talking about and you’re moving so fast maybe I’m just far too much of a beginner for this video but I appreciate you doing it. I’m currently trying to figure up a back up strategy for myself. I’m sitting around the house with a bunch of SSD drives external drives, I’m using iCloud. I got some stuff on Amazon Drive. I’m all over the place and I need. One simple system. I also want a cold storage system for many of my old videos from back in high school back in the 80s.

[@ApostKef]

Download everything into one place, buy a blu ray drive, buy some verbatim 25gb blank discs and with 7z make the archives, then copy paste each one of it to each disk

[@Skelly5962]

You should change your channel name to EpicVox, dude.

[@EposVox]

lol "Epos" is "Epic" in Latin :P

[@Lagggerengineering]

Get an LTO tape drive. www.lto.org/technology/what-is-lto-technology/ Seriously, 6 TERABYTES of uncompressed storage on tapes! Or if you dont feel like shelling out a few thousand dollars for a 7th gen LTO drive, buy a lower gen one from e-bay! I recommend 4th gen or higher.

[@EposVox]

Yeah.. LTO is a very expensive option, haha.

[@kanesmith8271]

I just make copies of the same files over and over until they fill the disc

[@denest8537]

what good is that if the disk is gone breaks or scratched etc?

[@Easelgames]

Biggest hurdle for me disks wise is both the "how long till they're outta date ?" and "what if I need to copy a bunch of disks off? that'll take awhile... " That's about it though if you treat 'em well.

[@EposVox]

That's why it's "Cold Storage" - data you back up and don't touch other than in critical data failure, where restoring the backup can take however long it needs. Primary backup would still be more easily accessible. That's how most major backup scenarios work - you basically just have a bunch of save states of where things were at specific points in time. Still have a more active backup going.

[@Easelgames]

Of course, but in your case you're backing up photos, which after a few years will certainly need replacing. I can understand for video files or stuff that isn't as personal.

[@EposVox]

No reason they should need replaced. Pretty simple "Photos - January 2017" as I did. Then in ~6 months when you want to make sure you're still backed up, you back up everything from January 2017 onward, rinse and repeat. Including the ongoing month of the latest backup just for redundancy and so nothing gets left out. Photos is literally the easiest way to make this work. Bad example :P

[@Mae-nr7wr]

should have used winrar instead, then you can make a recovery disc, essentially turning ur disk archive into a "RAID5"

[@EposVox]

That’s effectively what I did with parity lol

[@Mae-nr7wr]

@@EposVox oh it did? i thought it only filled in the remaining space left, meaning it wouldn't have enough recovery data if an entire disc disappeared

[@MNGermann]

oh nooooo, multipar does not exist anymore. :(

[@EposVox]

github.com/Yutaka-Sawada/MultiPar

[@MNGermann]

@@EposVox OMG, EposVox respond to me! I will never wash my screen again. :p Thanks boss!

[@TheRealJohnHooper]

In reality most people dont even have the time to watch what they own a second time.. 34k videos.. You will never watch all of them ever again..

[@dlarge6502]

Whoosh That's the sound of the point flying past you. You might not watch 32,000 videos again, why would you need to? But you might watch 2000 of those videos again. If you are clairvoyant enough to know what they are 20 years before you need them, well then you can delete the other 30,000 videos. You'll also have no debt as you would have won the lottery every week for years.

[@TheRealJohnHooper]

@@dlarge6502 Whoosh

[@N0N0111]

I am waiting when he gets bored of this uhmm old.. intro and changes it.

[@EposVox]

It's a new intro as of June

[@lucalive1302]

MultiPar and redundancy waste of time. Another weak spot using Verbatim discs. Only Panasonic made in japan.