Protecting Digital Data

[Gondor]

Originally Posted by IndianaHiker

Three problems with the padlock flash drives. 1st no flash drive is made for long term storage they will die. 2nd one more number to remember. You can set a Personal PIN and a Master PIN. Forget them both and enter the code to unlock the device and it erases all data on the drive. Guess you could take a sharpie and write the PIN on the device. Yes laugh at that but I have seen things just like this done. 3rd these things use an internal battery to keep the password. It charges via USB. In my opinion just one more point of failure.

If you really have data that you need secure then carrying around with you is not a good idea to begin with. If it is stuff that is that sensitive it should be stored on a secure server. You can then access via a secure VPN tunnel or from the cloud. Anything that can be carried can be left behind. Personally not sure what the average Joe would have that they need to carry with them on a regular basis that needs to be that secure.

Essence of backing up something is having more copies of it. You can always find problems with any technology. I think that having another layer of protection over a plain flash drive is useful. But I do agree that this must not be your primary mean of storage.

[Barney]

How about flash drives that still work after 5-6 years of repeated usage? Who can explain that? Never once I had one failed on me. I put my money on them.

[ChadTower]

You have to decide what you are protecting against. The strategies to protect against loss are very different than those against theft. They can be combined but first decide what you want to prevent and then you can decide how to prevent it.

[IndianaHiker]

Originally Posted by Barney

How about flash drives that still work after 5-6 years of repeated usage? Who can explain that? Never once I had one failed on me. I put my money on them.

That is totally possible. To a great deal the life of on is limited to how much use and abuse it takes. I have had some that did last for years. On the flip side I have had some that a computer would not recognize and data was not recoverable after a few months. Most makers of the drives do not suggest them as storage but rather as a means to transport data from one device to another. Will say that working in a shop that works on computers and having doing some data recovery I see the ones that didn't last as opposed to the ones that did.

http://usb-life-expectancy

[Gondor]

So the conclusion would be that there is no good storage system, at least in the long term. I will combine a few of them and replace them often and hope that they won't fail me all at the same time.

[Grandpa]

Being an old feller, we had to copy all our old favorite phonograph records to tape cassettes because we couldn't find old record players any more. Then we had to copy all our cassette tapes to floppy discs because we couldn't find cassette players any more. You get the pattern here? No, there is no one good long time source of storage because in a few years everything we have now will be obsolete and unavailable for retrieving. Hard copy is probably the best long term if you use it correctly. (non acidic albums, cool, dry storage places, etc.)

[Theosus]

That's the good thing about old music. Bought a credence album years ago? Don't have a record player any more? Just find it online.

[ChadTower]

Originally Posted by Grandpa

Being an old feller, we had to copy all our old favorite phonograph records to tape cassettes because we couldn't find old record players any more. Then we had to copy all our cassette tapes to floppy discs because we couldn't find cassette players any more. You get the pattern here? No, there is no one good long time source of storage because in a few years everything we have now will be obsolete and unavailable for retrieving. Hard copy is probably the best long term if you use it correctly. (non acidic albums, cool, dry storage places, etc.)

Good practice for archival is to store the media and the retrieval device. Best practice is to store spare parts for the retrieval device along with multiple copies of the media and to be aware of the lifespan of the media.

Granted, for stuff like a home use record collection, that isn't going to happen intentionally. It's pretty common for someone with a huge record collection to have kept a couple of record players around, though, because that's what they like.

As for digital data the ideal is to keep your data locally and to have regularly scheduled backups to a different physical location. That can be a third party service online but those folks who don't like Big Brother in their data can do it themselves with some fairly simple devices that are stored somewhere else. I am in the process of setting up a regular backup to a device in my outbuilding. That serves as a duplicate in case of hardware failure but also as reasonable protection against a house fire. If my house burns down the odds are low that the building 50' away will burn down too.

[IndianaHiker]

Originally Posted by ChadTower

Good practice for archival is to store the media and the retrieval device. Best practice is to store spare parts for the retrieval device along with multiple copies of the media and to be aware of the lifespan of the media.

Granted, for stuff like a home use record collection, that isn't going to happen intentionally. It's pretty common for someone with a huge record collection to have kept a couple of record players around, though, because that's what they like.

As for digital data the ideal is to keep your data locally and to have regularly scheduled backups to a different physical location. That can be a third party service online but those folks who don't like Big Brother in their data can do it themselves with some fairly simple devices that are stored somewhere else. I am in the process of setting up a regular backup to a device in my outbuilding. That serves as a duplicate in case of hardware failure but also as reasonable protection against a house fire. If my house burns down the odds are low that the building 50' away will burn down too.

Nailed it Chad. Doing computer repair and networking see all to often what people call backups are not. The key is multiple copies and physical separation.