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How do you store and backup data?

Galaxy16

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How do you organize files? What folder structures?

How do you archive large 4K videos? (or even 8K, because entrepreneurs can afford it).

In what way do you utilize HDD,SSD,USB,SD,DVD,BD,CD,LTO and etc.?

I need some advice because I feel unorganised when managing data.

Entrepreneurs also have no budget limit imposed when buying data storage devices.
 
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AllanB

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I store all my files on Dropbox (2to with 120 days backup option) and I use software BoxCryptor for privacy.

No paper, I scan everything.
I organize folders and sub-folders structure by theme and sort sometimes by date when relevant.

I feel very comfortable with my data management.
 

Galaxy16

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I store all my files on Dropbox (2to with 120 days backup option) and I use software BoxCryptor for privacy.

No paper, I scan everything.
I organize folders and sub-folders structure by theme and sort sometimes by date when relevant.

I feel very comfortable with my data management.
What about local storage?
 

Vigilante

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People still use local storage?
 
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becks22

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I have several external hard drives that I rotate every few days with backups and then I have monthly and quarterly hard drives as well. I have all storage backed up to the cloud using 128 key encryption. In case my physical computers are also stolen (where a local copy is), I have bitlocker protection which requires a 18 key password before starting up. I have redundant backups at my parents house in case of a fire or something. My dad keeps external hard drives at my place to for the same reason. Ransomware scares the shit out of me. I also backup my emails which is my lifeline because that is how I get all my work. Dropbox is a good option for most people.

Regarding file structure, I come from a long line of really organized type A people so my file structure is complicated to say the least. I would post pics but I would need to edit out everything so it would be kind of pointless. Sorry can't be more help on this part.
 

ApparentHorizon

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How do you archive large 4K videos?

I'd put these on standard disk drives, if it's just for archiving. 4TB for $100. Maybe Raid 1, or external HDD or, NAS (network attached storage, which you can also setup as a private cloud)

I don't trust public cloud storage like dropbox, etc. They can delete private data at their discretion, and Google has been caught doing so.

Don't archive on CDs. Support will be outdated. USBs may stick around for a while, but they're flash memory, so not reliable for long term storage. SSDs are more reliable, but not as much as a disk drive (yet).
 

Xeon

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The way the original post is written reminds me of those essay topics we had to write in school lol

I use Google drive myself, one of my account has a 100 GB paid plan. I like that I can just drag the files and folders in and bingo. It also integrates with Gmail, Slides, Sheets....

For G Suite accounts under 5 users, it gives unlimited storage on Drive.
 

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I don't trust public cloud storage like dropbox, etc. They can delete private data at their discretion, and Google has been caught doing so.

I have tens of thousands of documents backed up on Google Drive. While I am paranoid that I could be frozen out of my account for any one of a number of random reasons, so far so good. I should though create a backup to the backup.

Google Groups
 
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Galaxy16

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Don't archive on CDs. Support will be outdated.
Optical storage is still very convenient for offline data hardcopies, physical mass distribution and for nostalgia. Ah yes, 5 minute crafts.

But for the average customer, which is the majority of world population, price-per-piece also matters.

CDs can cost 12 cents per piece in a 50 CD cakebox, DVDs 18 cents.
Optical storage is water resistant, can not fail unpredictably (there is a thing called quality scanning, which is in a program called Nero CD speed) and also offers real write protection by using write-once discs or read-only drives. Ah yes, they are immune against power surges.

Actually, many vehicles in USA, as far as I know, just have CD players, some have MP3 and some even have just casette players.
 

Galaxy16

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I have tens of thousands of documents backed up on Google Drive. While I am paranoid that I could be frozen out of my account for any one of a number of random reasons, so far so good. I should though create a backup to the backup.

Google Groups
I do not think they would remove user data in cloud without warning.
 

SquatchMan

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I'd put these on standard disk drives, if it's just for archiving. 4TB for $100. Maybe Raid 1, or external HDD or, NAS (network attached storage, which you can also setup as a private cloud)

I don't trust public cloud storage like dropbox, etc. They can delete private data at their discretion, and Google has been caught doing so.

Don't archive on CDs. Support will be outdated. USBs may stick around for a while, but they're flash memory, so not reliable for long term storage. SSDs are more reliable, but not as much as a disk drive (yet).

Google has deleted private data on anyone...? I find that hard to believe and can't find anything (on Google Search). Do you mean banning the account associated with the data?

To answer OP's question, I encrypt my sensitive documents with VeraCrypt and then upload to Dropbox. No one can snoop on them that way. I also have backups on my physical hard drive.
 

ApparentHorizon

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Optical storage is still very convenient for offline data hardcopies, physical mass distribution and for nostalgia. Ah yes, 5 minute crafts.

But for the average customer, which is the majority of world population, price-per-piece also matters.

CDs can cost 12 cents per piece in a 50 CD cakebox, DVDs 18 cents.
Optical storage is water resistant, can not fail unpredictably (there is a thing called quality scanning, which is in a program called Nero CD speed) and also offers real write protection by using write-once discs or read-only drives. Ah yes, they are immune against power surges.

Actually, many vehicles in USA, as far as I know, just have CD players, some have MP3 and some even have just casette players.

I'm not worried about the CDs themselves, but the drives to actually read/write haha

Google has deleted private data on anyone...? I find that hard to believe and can't find anything (on Google Search). Do you mean banning the account associated with the data?

My phrasing was bad. They didn't intentionally delete files, but their software implementation caused errors.

r/GoogleDrive - Google drive randomly deleting files?

That still doesn't rule out that they don't have the legal rights to delete your content if they wish. That would be suicide, but I wouldn't put it past their blackbox AI algorithms.

You should also familiarize yourself with their ToS.

tldr: you give Google a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our services, and to develop new ones.

Last I checked other services didn't have this clause.
 

GPM

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I have a NAS. Eventually I want to get another NAS and put it at my parents house and make them mirror images of each other. If I ever get a permanent offsite office location, or have a third offsite option I would probably get a third NAS and have that one be another mirror. You can get these as large as you want and you just throw more HDDs in them whenever you need space.
 

jon2089

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haven't had a pc with an optical drive since 2010. guess i would have to buy an external dive but then an external hd would be better
 
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ApparentHorizon

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Optical drives can just be purchased again, for an insignificant price for entrepreneurs.
haven't had a pc with an optical drive since 2010. guess i would have to buy an external dive but then an external hd would be better

Looks like they're not as obsolete as I thought.

You can still easily find 3.5" floppy drives, as well: https://www.amazon.com/Floppy-Tape-Drives/b?ie=UTF8&node=6795226011

Now the 8" floppy is a different story.
 

biophase

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I use dropbox and Livedrive. Dropbox is stored on their cloud and on my 7 pcs sharing it.
Livedrive is locally stored on 1 computer and on their cloud.

I don't think that local storage is safe enough without a cloud backup. I used to do this but was paranoid of loss or fire. So I put the HDs in a safe. But then I had too many HDs. Video adds up fast. Cloud storage is just a much easier solution.
 

Galaxy16

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Looks like they're not as obsolete as I thought.

You can still easily find 3.5" floppy drives, as well: https://www.amazon.com/Floppy-Tape-Drives/b?ie=UTF8&node=6795226011

Now the 8" floppy is a different story.
They are for nostalgia and for confidential documents. Floppy Disks are barely supported anywhere, and can be erased immediately using a magnet, which makes them excellently suitable for sensitive text documents
 
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ApparentHorizon

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They are for nostalgia and for confidential documents. Floppy Disks are barely supported anywhere, and can be erased immediately using a magnet, which makes them excellently suitable for sensitive text documents

That's kinda smart lol

I feel the same about CDs and scratches.

I think someone said it earlier, but I haven't used a CD in roughly 10 years.

Neither my laptop nor my custom pc has a drive.

Also, if ya'll aren't aware, Mega.nz gives you 50GB free storage.

I wouldn't store biz docs on there, but great for large files.
 

splok

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The most important thing to remember is that all backups can fail, so you need multiple, unconnected backups for anything that's truly important. Hard disks, ssds, and even optical media can fail over time. 3rd party providers can have problems, intentionally, accidentally, or through user error. I've lost files from both Google Drive and DropBox. In one case, two google company accounts merged and lost most of the files from one, and I've lost files in DropBox because a local delete got synced when I didn't think it would.

The only safe path is to assume that every backup you have will fail eventually. If you have at least 3 unconnected copies of anything important, then when one fails, you should be able to safely restore the 3rd. If all of your backups are in the same physical location, they can be burned, flooded, or stolen. If someone gained full control of your computer and had every site you've visited and all login info that you've entered for the past year, could they wipe all of your backups? If so, then you're not really safe.
 
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Galaxy16

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The most important thing to remember is that all backups can fail, so you need multiple, unconnected backups for anything that's truly important. Hard disks, ssds, and even optical media can fail over time. 3rd party providers can have problems, intentionally, accidentally, or through user error. I've lost files from both Google Drive and DropBox. In one case, two google company accounts merged and lost most of the files from one, and I've lost files in DropBox because a local delete got synced when I didn't think it would.

The only safe path is to assume that every backup you have will fail eventually. If you have at least 3 unconnected copies of anything important, then when one fails, you should be able to safely restore the 3rd. If all of your backups are in the same physical location, they can be burned, flooded, or stolen. If someone gained full control of your computer and had every site you've visited and all login info that you've entered for the past year, could they wipe all of your backups? If so, then you're not really safe.
The most important thing to remember is that all backups can fail, so you need multiple, unconnected backups for anything that's truly important. Hard disks, ssds, and even optical media can fail over time. 3rd party providers can have problems, intentionally, accidentally, or through user error. I've lost files from both Google Drive and DropBox. In one case, two google company accounts merged and lost most of the files from one, and I've lost files in DropBox because a local delete got synced when I didn't think it would.

The only safe path is to assume that every backup you have will fail eventually. If you have at least 3 unconnected copies of anything important, then when one fails, you should be able to safely restore the 3rd. If all of your backups are in the same physical location, they can be burned, flooded, or stolen. If someone gained full control of your computer and had every site you've visited and all login info that you've entered for the past year, could they wipe all of your backups? If so, then you're not really safe.

Fire is highly unlikely yet still considerable.
But optical media does never fail unpredictably.
 

jon2089

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I had the dvd drive on my original xbox fail and scratch my games. so optical storage can fail just as much if not more then anything else.
 
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splok

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Fire is highly unlikely yet still considerable.
But optical media does never fail unpredictably.

IBM expert warns of short life span for burned CDs

"Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD"


I think he's talking about the worst-case, but worst-cases are what we're talking about avoiding. If something is really important, you should probably re-create your backups every few years. The simple fact is that no one's ever tried to use a 100 year old cd. We can project their lifespans, but that's based on a stack of assumptions which may or may not hold true, as the CD rot shows.

I mean, practically speaking, your media is going to outlive the usefulness of most of your data, but there are probably some things that people don't ever want to lose, important photos for example. There should probably be a distinction between "backups" and "archives". When I go to visit family, they can pull out photos and documents from around 100 years ago. I think the current generation may have trouble doing that. Pretty much everything mentioned in this thread is good short-term, say for the next couple of years, but for 10-20? or 100? Even the prints made by most modern printers aren't going to hold up for that long.
 

Galaxy16

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I had the dvd drive on my original xbox fail and scratch my games. so optical storage can fail just as much if not more then anything else.
It's from the XBox, that shouldn't happen on a real desktop drive.
Additionally, DVDs in good drives have excellent damage handling. But always have redundant backups. Entrepreneurs can afford it.
 

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