Ah thanks, that gives me something to research.

Would that be two disks under a type of RAID or does ZFS have something?

Yeah that’s an idea. It does seem like I’d need a lot of disks though. And I don’t actually have a disk reader or writer at all at the moment.

Yeah from some other comments I think my initial plan (that I’ll research some more) will be:

• buy a new HDD, format with ZFS or btrfs for error correction
• copy data onto drive
• store in cupboard with sata-> USB cable and instructions about what it is, how to access .
• every year, load the previous year’s data onto the drive
• about every 5 years, replace the drive by copying onto a brand new one (timeframe will likely depend on when my other HDD drives die)

This way I should get a chance to update storage medium as technology changes as well.

Yeah after looking at the price of a drive, I agree it doesn’t seem necessary at the level of data I have.

I’d rather cold storage but am thinking of looking along these lines, ZFS or btrfs on a standard HDD that I add files on to once a year and replace the disk every few years.

I have a standard backup setup I just want something that is more point in time and not connected to all the automation, in case I automatically delete everything.

Thanks, I think the risk here is that there may not be hardware to read it.

From the suggestions here I’m thinking a hard drive with USB connection would be best. It won’t last 50 years but instead I’d replace it every 5 years or so. I’d use an error resistant file system and plug it in each year to add the new files.

This way I also get the chance to move it to newer technology in future instead of a new hard drive. It would then only need to survive for some period of time after I last replaced it, so there’s a good chance of it remaining readable for most of my life.

Thanks! I think this is probably a big risk of not being able to find the hardware to play it.

Through other conversations I think the answer is to instead get a normal drive, USB connection, and every few years replace the drive and copy the data to the new drive, using an error resistant file system and something like rsync that validates that the files arrived correctly.

As technology changes, I’d move the files as needed onto the more modern media.

Yeah I will read up on it, thanks for the tip!

I have 3 2 1 but I want the equivalent of a suitcase of photos in the cupboard. No family member is gonna be cleaning out my house as they move me to a rest home and stumble upon my Borg backup in B2 object storage. And if they do they won’t have the key. I want something a bit closer to physical.

I think an extra drive for cold storage is a good idea. My main backups are automated, this one I can add any new files done in the last year once a year, then back in the cupboard. I just need to make sure I’m rotating the drives so I don’t have the same one in storage for 50 years, and instead buy new ones every 5 years or so.

Yeah based on the suggestions so far this seems like the best option. Just need to make sure I have a way to verify no files are corrupted (and if they are, which ones), and remember to swap it out for a new one every 5 years or so or each time I need a new drive.

I have had terrible experience with USBs failing, including losing a bunch of photos beyond recovery (some 15 years ago, but it still hurts). Plus it’s quite aot of data.

I’m thinking a hard drive + USB SATA cable might be my best option. Add the new content each year. Work out some way of verifying it’s not corrupted. Replace drive every 5 years or something, it can be swapped in when I get a failure and the new one can be the new backup.

So the drive doesn’t need to be hot, I can just plug in once a year and it auto-repairs?

I mean, there are a lot of drives. Two laptops with a drive each. A desktop/server with three drives, and a spare laptop used for Kodi is the current setup. I’m not counting but I think it’s three drives, one laptop, and one mobo since I started self-hosting perhaps 5 or 6 years ago.

The drives themselves, one was still under warranty, one was probably 3 or 4 years old, and the last was probably 6 or 8 and was in an old laptop and well used.

I think some of the drives have had a hard live while I messed around self-hosting, especially during my phase of trying out photo solutions.

Ah good thinking. I am thinking a spare drive that I update once a year with new content and replace every few years with a new drive is a good idea.

Hmm damn. I don’t really think cloud is the right answer for what I’m trying to do.

I disagree that formats like JPEG won’t be readable in 50 years. I feel like there would be big demand for being able to read the format even if it’s been superceded, on account of all the JPEGs that still living people have.

Maybe I get a big drive. Each year I copy over files from the last year. Every X years I swap the hard drive for a new one, copy all data.

How can I tell if individual files get corrupted? Like the hard drive failed in that section, then I copy the corrupted file to the new drive, and I’d never know. Can I test in bulk? 50k+ photos and videos so far.

So my offsites are an incremental backup, but at some point the oldest version is gone. I am keen for a completely separate, long term snapshot of what I had that could be thrown in a cupboard, and any random family member clearing my house out as I get moved into a rest home at 108 can go through the photos and find a good one to put on my headstone.

I am also keen for protection against doing something dumb and losing everything (like losing my hard drive and finding out for some reason I can’t access my backups because I lost the encryption key because I put it in bitwarden and they shut down years ago and I never moved the key over because I forgot it was stored there).

Yes my issue is that I seem to be replacing a drive somewhere every couple of years. I am keen for something that can be stored in a cupboard for years, preferably a decent chance at lasting decades.

That’s effectively what I have now. However I seem to kill a drive every couple of years, so I am keen for something that can be stored for many years (preferably decades).

As much as I’m worried about family not being able to do it, I’m just as worried that I will do something dumb and lose the encryption key, losing everything. I am keen on the digital equivalent of a suitcase full of photos that could be stumbled upon.

I also already have borg backup set up to a backup drive and synced to the cloud (Backblaze B2).

For tape drives, is many thousands of dollars a normal price? Not sure I’m that keen.