brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

At least those big hard drives hold all the eggs. Three of them do it three times, in case one fails. Optical media is least reliable.

Ricinus Loc: Leduc Alberta

This is the way I've been leaning instead of HD's..

Mike

JonClayton Loc: Central Florida

As Duane states all mechanical or SSD storage can fail. I am the Director of It for a large Agricultural company and we back up to multiple types of storage D2D, Tape, CD and Offsite Cloud based systems. If you have limited availability to the "Cloud" then your best bet is a NAS system with at least RAID 5 capability that way if one drive fails it can rebuild on to the new drive. But do not put all of your hope on that because the device itself can also fail and then you are SOL. Backup to multiple devices or media for the best protection.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

Technically (according to those that certify backup systems for large corporations) CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray discs are NOT considered acceptable backups for insurance purposes. The issues are sensibility to light, scratches, sensibility to temperature fluctuations and long term reliability of data. I have a very large collection of DVD/Blu-Ray movies and some of my oldest are starting to show some degradation of the movie quality. Now, this result may be two fold, 1. from age because of the time that the disc has sat in it's case (only being used in a player occasionally). And 2, because the early versions of the movie discs may not have the quality of manufacture that the later versions have. Disc backup to optical disc still is not considered archival by most industry standards.
Having said that, I do use DVD/Blu-ray for some short term backups or to send data/images to clients. I mainly use the discs for clients because I can send them registered mail/UPS/FedEx and get signed receipts of delivery.
While I use 4tb USB3 drives for my backup because of the speed plus I am able to mitigate possible failure due to mechanical failure and also since the off site (safe deposit) is no more than 5 days old and third tier of the system, protected from fire and weather, I am in pretty good shape. If someone breaks in and steals a backup, then I still have the secondary (garage) and 3rd backup (bank) to fall back on. Keeping a drive in the car creates other issues as the car is subject to extreme cold and heat plus the chance of burglary and/or damage in an accident. I realize that I am going to extremes but the data represents my business as well as memories.
I'm not willing to subject that data to chance. But, keep in mind that my safe deposit box is a free product of my checking/savings account at my bank so I am making use of it. If it was an added charge then I might look at other solutions.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

The ones you really care about need to be printed. Whatever you store them on now might not be readable 50-100 years from now.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

If you're talking about CD/DVD disks, forget about that century. The ones that are mass produced by pressing the disks may last a significant amount of time but the ones you burn at home are not the same. They have an organic material that a laser burns holes in. In time that organic material degrades and the disk becomes unreadable. There are varying grades of that kind of disk and the ones from the low bidder are probably the worst. I've had some of them become unreadable in three years.



I am very skeptical of that thousand years. They may well last significantly longer than the old CD/DVDs but (1) that technology has only been around for a few years so the thousand year estimate is a very large extrapolation; (2) At the rate technology changes that system may be obsolete in as little as 25 years; (3) Who is going to look at your images a thousand years from now?

Since technology changes quickly (and at an accelerating rate) any archiving of data requires maintenance to be viable. Suppose you stored a lot of valuable data 50 years ago on the best available medium. How would you read it today? Where would you get an 8" floppy disk reader, a 7 track tape machine, or maybe something like a wire recorder (OK, that's older than 50 years)? If you have valuable data you don't want something that will last a thousand years. It will give you a false sense of security. You will have to copy (and verify) the data to newer technology media every decade or two.

gessman Loc: Colorado

An EZ-Dock or two hot swappable disk docks and multiple hard drives to rotate and a system to carry one copy off-site. EZ-Dock = https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-EZ-Dock-2-5-Inch-3-5-Inch-EZD-2535U3/dp/B00JKM0KUE/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1494604793&sr=8-7&keywords=ez+dock+3

or https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-2-5-Inch-3-5-Inch-Clone-EZD-2537U3/dp/B00N1QL9K0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494604793&sr=8-1&keywords=ez+dock+3

or https://www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-eSATA-External-Enclosure/dp/B01GUDXXN6/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1494604793&sr=8-17&keywords=ez+dock+3

or some other manufacturer's offerings also available at Amazon in this lineup, not all of which are for hard drives:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_7?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ez+dock+3&sprefix=ez+dock%2Caps%2C246&crid=36WM4CRCIO0I3

EDIT: You can turn the docks off and remove the hard drives when not in use backing up and hence minimize the spinning of the drive which accelerates the incidence of failure from wear and tear and therefore extend the life of the drives.

Mike1017

Western Digital 3 tb no problem I have 6 external drives and you have total control no 3 party. Mike

jefren Loc: Montgomery, Alabama

I have two external hard drives - one connected to the computer for backups, and one in a safety deposit box at the bank. I swap them monthly.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

With due respect, another reason your plan is not very sound is that you have but one set of copies of all those files. A real backup plan includes multiple copies with one set held off site, so a catastrophe at home will at least leave you with the last set of updated files stored at your office or at the safety deposit box at a bank or at your cousin's place, or wherever. Just sayin'

And @Dave327, evidently you are unfamiliar with the concept of Satellite Internet service providers - this involves a satellite dish on your roof (much like Dish or DirecTV) and has nothing to do with land line broadband. Not that I would call your comment stupid for that gaffe.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

That would be true if you (or your successors) don't migrate to the newer technology at each step along the way.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

That's exactly my point. If you want future generations, maybe great, great, great grandkids, to see your images, they better be printed archivally.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

f8lee wrote:

<<And @Dave327, evidently you are unfamiliar with the concept of Satellite Internet service providers - this involves a satellite dish on your roof (much like Dish or DirecTV) and has nothing to do with land line broadband. Not that I would call your comment stupid for that gaffe.>>

It appears you have confused the posters on this subject f8lee. Dave327 posted that the OP could use the Hughes Net satellite system. Winterrose responded to that post, calling it "stupid." So it's winterrose, not Dave327, who apparently isn't familiar with satellite internet and made an inappropriate reply.

For an old timer like me the internet can be a strange thing at times. Here I am defending someone whom I have never met and know absolutely nothing about! I'm not sure it that's a good or bad thing. ;o)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Hundreds and hundreds of prints? I would hope my successor(s) keep the files and migrate them...

winterrose Loc: Kyneton, Victoria, Australia

I do apologize. I was, however with the understanding that the OP was sufficiently astute to have investigated all available options including HughesNet before asking.