this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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Data Hoarder

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We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

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I've always heard that you folks like to keep tons of backups of your stuff. I have also heard that there is this 3-2-1 rule about keeping you backups. My question is: do you follow it personally or is it something that people just tell you to follow?

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[–] chaplin2@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The 2 in this rule isn’t clear: 2 different media?

Why is it important if it’s DVD & HDD or SSD & HDD?

[–] abagofcells@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

For home use, it's just two different devices that can be the same type, like harddrives in two servers, but not redundant data storage in one device, like RAID or just having two copies of files on the same drive. For corporate, most will probably interpret it as two different media types, like harddrive and tape. You want them seperate to prevent accidental deletion of files, ransomware and such.

[–] ShelZuuz@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Diversity in Failure Modes: Different storage media have different failure modes and life expectancies. For example, a hard disk drive (HDD) might be susceptible to mechanical failure, while a solid-state drive (SSD) might have limitations in terms of write cycles. By diversifying the media types, you reduce the risk that a single failure mode (like a power surge, mechanical wear, or temperature sensitivity) could compromise all of your backups.

Reducing Common Points of Failure: If all copies of your data are stored on the same type of device, they may all be vulnerable to the same type of failure. For example, if you have all your backups on different HDDs from the same manufacturer and there's a manufacturing defect, all your backups could fail simultaneously.

Technology and Ageing: Different technologies age and become obsolete at different rates. By using multiple types of media, you're less likely to find yourself in a situation where all your backups are stored on outdated or unsupported technology.

Physical and Environmental Threats: Different types of media have varying levels of resilience to physical and environmental threats like fire, water damage, magnetic interference, etc. By diversifying, you increase the chances that at least one of your backup mediums will survive a catastrophic event.

Data Recovery Options: In the event of a failure, different types of media may offer different data recovery options. Some media might be easier or more cost-effective to recover data from than others.