Might Flash Memory be a Viable Backup Medium?

General Books asks: "Rather than fuss over mechanical failures and damaged media, why not use flash memory for backups? We maintain about 100 servers distributed to customers' sites. Each night we copy a backup of critical data (generally less than 128MB) to removable media in case the hard drive fails. We have experienced high failure rates with CDRWs and so now I am considering some sort of flash memory like a USB key drive. They are solid-state and you can get a 128MB device for $20. They seem ideal to me, but I can't find solid evidence. One question is how would they endure a lightning strike (perhaps not as good as an optical medium)? Admittedly, there is a wide variety of CDRW drives and media but don't they all seem risky compared to a solid-state device? More info about my circumstances: We have no network for backups. A second hard disk is not viable because it could not be rotated offsite. Tape drives are relatively expensive and overkill for our volume of data."

Comments

external HD

[Anonymous Coward]

A USB or Firewire external drive would store far more data and could be rotated offsite.

I don't do offsite backups

[the_other_one]

When that place burns I want to be sure all the evidence goes up in smoke.

I've had no luck with Flash Media

[xanderwilson]

I cross my fingers (no, not literally) every time I've inserted a piece of Flash Media into my camera, PDA, or USB drive. I find that about one in every 20 times the disk comes up empty. I take good care of them (three different media types), but I don't find them reliable at all. I'd sooner use CD-Rs (though now I might start backing those up every 2 years on new CD-Rs.

Alex.

How about...

[EaTiN cOfFeE bEaNs]

one of these perhaps?