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Long-Term Personal Data Storage?

BeanBagKing writes "Yesterday I set out in search of a way to store my documents, videos, and pictures for a long time without worrying about them. This is stuff that I may not care about for years, I don't care where it is, or if it's immediately available, so long as when I do decide to get it, it's there. What did I come up with? Nothing. Hard Drives can fail or degrade. CD's and DVD's I've read have the same problem over long periods of time. I'd rather not pay yearly rent on a server or backup/storage solution. I could start my own server, but that goes back to the issue of hard drives failing, not to mention cost. Tape backups aren't common for personal backups, making far-future retrieval possibly difficult, not to mention the low storage capacity of tape drives. I've thought about buying a bunch of 4GB thumb drives; I've had some of those for years and even sent a few through washers and driers and had the data survive. Do you have any suggestions? My requirements are simple: It must be stable, lasting for decades if possible, and must be as inexpensive as possible. I'm not looking to start my own national archive; I have less than 500GBs and only save things important to me."

13 of 669 comments (clear)

  1. EASY! by The+Yuckinator · · Score: 2, Funny
  2. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Remember paper? That actually roots after a period of time.

    That's why paper is specifically prohibited on my network.

  3. Re:Amazon S3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yes, and it's better than dirt.

  4. Obviously the best storage method ever. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    1) Encrypt your data
    2) Tack it onto the end of some anime or porno mpg
    3) upload to kazaa/gnutella/whatever

    It'll still be circulating the net long after our grandchildren are dead.

  5. Stone tablets by DaveLatham · · Score: 5, Funny

    Very durable. Write speed is a bit slow though...

  6. Re:Ask Slashdot AGAIN by eclectro · · Score: 5, Funny

    How many times has this question been asked on Slashdot?

    It needs repeated backing up.

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  7. Re:Not being answered by Albert+Sandberg · · Score: 5, Funny

    well the backups storing the questions have been lost.

  8. Re:Quality DVDs, archival storage, repeated backup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Because nobody wants to learn perl or bash, and C/C++ is just overkill.

  9. Re:Not enough history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    This "ask slashdot" question is like masturbation. It is kinda fun but, in the end, pointless. The answers haven't changed much since last month (or whenever it was posted last) but it will still probably get 500 responses. fapfapfap

  10. Teganography by fucket · · Score: 2, Funny

    Which, of course, refers to the process of getting the data (in binary form) tattooed on your body by tattoo artist Tegan Stadnyck of Seabrook, New Hampshire.

    1. Re:Teganography by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Funny

      Actually, its steganography, but I used typoganography to hide the "s" :-)

      That's my story, and I'm sticking to it ...

  11. Re:Amazon S3 by Myrddin+Wyllt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Of course Amazon will always be there, just like Ford and GM....

    --
    [ ]Half Empty [ ]Half Full [x]Twice as big as it needs to be
  12. Re:Flash drives by synthespian · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ok, dudes, if he's got radiation problems, he's got bigger problems than data storage.

    --
    Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts