Optical Disc Backups? ``dvdisaster``

WetGeek

QTC Is there another app in the repos that accomplishes the same thing?

I don't have an answer to that, but Solus supports both flatpak and snap. Have you considered looking for it there? If it is available that way, that would be way easier than building and maintaining it yourself.

QTC

WetGeek Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't think to check till you mentioned it. Unfortunately there isn't a version of dvdisaster available as eater a Snap or Flatpak.

This post/question is to see if the community at large has any insight to the subject of Optical Disk Backups in general, or possibly even suggest a different route for offline (cold) backups.

qsl

Depends on amount, amount of changes to the data, and how much fragility you are willing to tolerate.

If going for archival, M-discs and any burning software should work. If you will interact with the data more, a portable HD and disc imaging software would work (I don't know of a way to do this well with optical discs).

Clonezilla seems to be popular and is OS agnostic.

QTC

qsl you are correct the M-discs are better for going the archival route. Though sadly price is a factor, and according the information I found BD-R HTL "should" suffice for several decades at a minimum.

The information I'm storing fall into one of two categories, source/original files that I've converted to different formats, or data that already have on my NAS or personal computer that I want to backup.

Axios

QTC I have alot cd going on 30 years old now they still work converting them over to an sd
The dvd disks and dlayer all went bad from what i read they had issues with them so stay away from
them for long term storage.
Never used any bluray stuff. Used dvdisaster back in the day but mostly to tell quality of cd cant ever remembering
recovering anything with it never had to. just use appimage https://appimage.github.io/dvdisaster/
I think the way thumb drives and sdhd are nowdays one with good backup program and a decent quality thumb drive isnt bad
(just info)

QTC

Axios Thanks, I'll go the AppImage route.

I agree that going with HDD or Solid State Drive would be easier, but I plan to write then store the backup medium for a minimum for the next 5-15 years. I've read that Solid State "may" not be suitable for archival purposes (unpowered for extended periods of time).

I don't intend to access the backup unless my running copy of the data is lost, or gain access to source files that I may want to convert to different formats (eg FLAC > OPUS)... If there is no reason to access the data then I'll probably only access it when its time to move over to a different backup/archival medium.

tomscharbach

QTC I agree that going with HDD or Solid State Drive would be easier, but I plan to write then store the backup medium for a minimum for the next 5-15 years. I've read that Solid State "may" not be suitable for archival purposes (unpowered for extended periods of time).

I've read that, too. Who is to say without a track record?

I create monthly archival data backups to external HHD's (two identical large WD drives for redundancy) and keep the backups for 15 years. I keep the monthly backups for two years, but delete all but the January and July backups after two years, keeping the remaining January/July backups for 15 +/-.

The magnetic media will eventually deteriorate, of course, and controller firmware will probably change from time to time (as ATA was superseded by SATA) but for short-term archiving (5-15 years) this shouldn't be a problem. I looked at optical backup storage some years ago, but the disadvantages (slow write speeds, disk capacity) outweighed the benefits (50 +/- year shelf life).

I'm writing this only to suggest that you not dismiss HDD storage out-of-hand. The oldest backup on my WD devices is July 2006.

QTC

tomscharbach your right, backing up information for a 5-15 years time frame on HDD makes more sense for most common use cases. I've thought about setting up a second NAS for this specific purpose; it would automatically boot, connect to my main NAS and copy (ZFS send/receive) the relevant data, then shutdown.

Doing this should satisfy Axios's observation that you need to power on drives on occasion to keep them healthy. Though I'll still need figure to refresh the data after a couple of years or so. If I can set this up at a remote location then I would also have an off site backup.

elfprince I've looked into magnetic tapes. I think they're a wonderful solution backing up large data sets, especially if they constantly change/update. The only problem I see regarding Magnetic media, and tape especially is the fragility of data storage.

Magnetic tapes have very specific storage requirements, that if are not met can significantly reduce their data retention. Then there is the need to refresh the data like a HDD, also I don't remember seeing any statistics on how quickly tape wares out on read/write. Coupled with the fact that you will probably need to purchase a minimum of 2 tape drive (for redundancy), and it's a very large upfront cost with a lot of maintenance (if used for prolong periods of time). Though looking at the size and price of tape locally, I see can the appeal...

elfprince

Another option: magnetic tapes w/ tape drives

Axios

On my old hhd I have I just every so often run spinrite on them it refeshes the magnetic surface and looks for
errors and can recover data have had no problems keeping data on them for years and if one does show problems I just transfer data to a new drive. But I do store those in a wooden dresser drawer believe it or not which controls humidity and temp but doesnt do much for physical destruction thats the reason to have 2 copies.
You cant do this with ssd would shorten life to much.
Kinda weird but works.
Good reading https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/43702-we-bet-you-didnt-know-that-your-hdds-or-ssds-may-need-exercise-too/
Hmm learned something new did know this about ssd
There’s no reason to rewrite the data; simply powering the drive on and using it as you normally would for a few minutes should be sufficient to maintain data integrity. (makes ssd process simple)

Axios

QTC With ssd just keeping them powered on or hooking them up every so often does the trick
This refreshes everything since they arent magnetic media.
Its just the way the chips are designed in ssd
Harddrives data needs refreshed but not on ssd.
Reread my post kinda jumbled together thought just clarify abit.

QTC

Thanks Axios, I would probably go with Solid State if it was cheaper and had greater density. Right now its not cost competitive if you need a large storage pool.

For backups, I'll probably go for a second TrueNAS, one that's optimized for data storage & redundancy. And have it power on, grab files form my main NAS and power off when done. I'm thinking this should mitigates my risk against electrical issues (e.g. power surge), and reduces costs (electrical consumption). It would still susceptible to electromagnetic events, but realistically it's powerful enough damage a HDD I would probably have other things to worry about.

For Archival, I still leaning to Optical (Blu Ray HTL) as the best route, and dvdisaster gives a bit of added security and peace of mind.