[HawaiianOnline]

Consider something like these if you want large capacity storage for home. A smaller external would be fine for more portable storage.

[lesmore49]

Consider something like these if you want large capacity storage for home. A smaller external would be fine for more portable storage.

I got a LaCie on the recommendation of my local high end camera store. It came on sale. Like those in the link but not as much capacity.. Thanks for posting.

[Ron Boggs]

Hey Ben, you mention that flash memory has a lower read/write cycle lifespan than hard drives, but what about longevity? I don't forsee using archival "vaults" for very many read/write cycles at all. Probably less than 100 for total lifespan, so the cycle life is not important to me. Will the data stay there for decades? Will it be retrievable for decades? Those are the big questions for my uses...especially as the flash memory keeps getting cheaper and cheaper...

And Confused, I wasn't trying to shout down your recommendation of DVD storage...hell, I use DVD's myself and they are without question the least costly option at present. I was just making sure others new to this topic don't presume full archivability with DVD's.

Wouldn't it be funny if the conclusion to this question is something akin to "film archives better than electronic/optical media." Just as a freakish irony...

Still haven't heard back from my "tech whiz" boys regarding the external drive...that's not a good sign! Part of their business model is quick turn-around...uh oh.

[Ben_Edict]

Hey Ben, you mention that flash memory has a lower read/write cycle lifespan than hard drives, but what about longevity? I don't forsee using archival "vaults" for very many read/write cycles at all. Probably less than 100 for total lifespan, so the cycle life is not important to me. Will the data stay there for decades? Will it be retrievable for decades? Those are the big questions for my uses...especially as the flash memory keeps getting cheaper and cheaper...

And Confused, I wasn't trying to shout down your recommendation of DVD storage...hell, I use DVD's myself and they are without question the least costly option at present. I was just making sure others new to this topic don't presume full archivability with DVD's.

Wouldn't it be funny if the conclusion to this question is something akin to "film archives better than electronic/optical media." Just as a freakish irony...

Still haven't heard back from my "tech whiz" boys regarding the external drive...that's not a good sign! Part of their business model is quick turn-around...uh oh.

I have no data about the lifespan of data on SSDs - and as far as I know, none have been published. But this is a vast field and I may simply have overlooked something.

As with all media, the lifespan will depend on storage conditions, too and SSDs are also (loke HDs) corrupted by excessive force (a fall down off the table...) I faintly remember a technical discussion some years ago, when SSD was still more a concept, than a product, where one opinion was, that SSDs would need refresh cycles every now and then, to prevent slow data loss. I do not know, whether this is indeed necessary with the current generation of SSDs.

The main problem I guess, will be whether you still have the hardware and software to really access the SSDs and data in a couple of decades. Therefor we all need to copy the existing data every couple of year to newer storage media and make sure, there is still software around to read file formats.

Film is indeed the only storage medium for images, where we actually have the experience of long-term storage.*If done properly, film will last four hundreds of years, especially BW.

Ben

[Jun Park]

For me, simplicity and cost are primary factors so I duplicate all files onto 2 external hard drives. I've had a hard drive fail but that wasn't a big deal because I had another copy of all the files so I went out that same day and bought another 500 GB external drive for about $80.

[Ben_Edict]

For me, simplicity and cost are primary factors so I duplicate all files onto 2 external hard drives. I've had a hard drive fail but that wasn't a big deal because I had another copy of all the files so I went out that same day and bought another 500 GB external drive for about $80.

That is an option which certainly works, if yoiu have a limited number of files.

My image data (without scans) currently fill near 2 TB of storage space and a single event will usually get me another 30 GB on top - some single Photoshop files have more than 1000 GB in size (with all layers etc.). I know some pros who still store these large columes onto external drives (some guys have more than 40 external drives lying around), but retrieving a certain image from such a pile of drives does not look invitingly (nor is it good economics) to me.

Ben