Backing up your model files...storage options.

[elliott]

OK, dumb question - Can you elaborate on optical media, like brand name, where to buy, approximate cost, etc.?

[cfuruti]

Originally Posted by airdave

I acknowledged that Discs are a good backup solution (CDs and DVDs).
DVDs being the best option since they hold the most.
About 4.5gb versus about 700mb (.7gb) on a CD.
Rewritable Discs allow to you add files...about four times I think, if you don't finalize the disc.
But I have heard they are prone to corruption

But discs can be damaged and they do naturally corrupt over time.

Also, the metallic data layer of DVDs is between two layers of plastic, instead of just below the printed label as in CDs. Therefore, a scratched DVD can be polished on either side, while it's nearly impossible polishing a CD scratched on the upper side without damaging it further.
DVD-RW and CD-RW can be be rewritten much more than 4 times. I rewrote some about 50 times before pendrives got cheap enough.
"Good" optical media should last for decades if kept well; I guess most data in the future won't be read not because the medium degraded, but because no suitable working hardware will be found, or the application/data format is no longer supported.

[Aside: both optical and flash (pen drives, SSD and USB drives, memory cards) memory vary in quality, and brand/price unfortunately are poor indicators of quality since labels can be faked so easily. See also note about speed below]

Optical media is very inexpensive, and it's hard/impossible to accidentally delete data. I personally mirror my data in an external disk, and archive "cold" files (which, like paper models, aren't often used) in triplicate DVDs of different brands (to avoid an occasional bad batch causing problems in the future).

Originally Posted by airdave

I suggested that "Flash Drives" sometimes known as "Thumb Sticks" might be a better option.
...
The can be used countless times...rewritten over and over again.

I don't know how well larger capacity drives are working...I have a 120gb Flash drive
that I purchased recently, for about $20.
It works, but I have experienced some file corruptions.
I think it is because it is a cheaply made drive...I bought it because it looks like Ironman!
I think you get what you pay for...spend more, get a better product.

See note about flash rewritability below.
Regarding price, a factor seldom mentioned about flash memory is speed. E.g., a cheap class 2 memory card is good enough for a digital camera to take still photos; but for HD movies, a class 10 unit is much better. The same applies for a big backup.

Originally Posted by airdave

Another option is a USB Hard Drive.

They do not have an internal power...so they do not plug into a power outlet, like other external Harddrives.
Instead, they get their power from the computer, via the USB cable.

External drives use either 2.5" or 3.5" form factor hard disks. The former, designed for notebooks, use much less power therefore the USB port is enough (they are are also, for the same price/capacity, slower and more expensive than 3.5" units); the latter always require a separate power unit.

Originally Posted by airdave

Seems these hardrives require a very small amount of power (via the USB connection) to operate
but its a very precise amount of power to work properly.

Usually the faster/larger the internal disk used, the more power is required; some 2.5" external disks even use extra USB heads in order to get additional wattage, and operate at full speed only when all are connected. I never had problems with them (well, the internal disk died, but that's not the external unit's concern), but some recommend connecting the power USB first, if available, then the data USB socket.

Originally Posted by airdave

Only thing better would be Solid State Harddrives (I think).
But they are still a little costly.
However I will be installing one of those soon, as my main operating system drive.
The speeds are incredible!

"Better" is relative. As John mentioned, each byte on flash memory (SSH) may be rewritten a limited number of times (much much more than a DVD-RW, but rather less than an ordinary hard disk). Flash is also much slower to write than to read. I think you get better results storing in flash the operating system and applications (therefore boot and load time is instantaneous), while virtual memory is a poor choice because it is constantly updated, even with wear levelling and similar technologies. Data files like paper models are in between.

[murphyaa]

Not sure where I fall in to the backup, but I have an 8gb SD Card always plugged into my laptop. When I can remember, I copy all of my model files to it for a quick backup. Longer term backup goes onto a backup hard drive (after 4 laptop crashes, I have a few spare hard drives lying around).

I got a kit that converts an internal hard drive to an external USB hard drive for about $30 at an electronics store.

And trust me, with my experiences, (4 laptops down and counting) I can't emphasize how important backing everything up is.

[cfuruti]

Originally Posted by willygoat

My laptop has a hybrid drive. Part "normal" drive, and part solid state. I believe the main system files are on the solid state to protect from massive failure.

AFAIK hybrid drives emphasize performance, not reliability. The unit assumes data used frequently will be soon required again in the future, thus storing it in flash memory. Some hybrid drives use flash solely as a big cache (e.g., all data is stored in the hard disk, and the more recently read/written files are duplicated in flash); therefore, randomly accessing large blocks of data scattered across the disk yield no performance gain.

[cfuruti]

Originally Posted by airdave

I have heard...that short of an EMP shutting it down, a solid state drive can not crash.
Is this true do you think?

Flash memory won't ever "crash" in the way a hard disk does, i.e., the read/write head landing on the media and throwing bytes everywhere. But it certainly will degrade with time, probably losing your data.

That's because, in order to effectively rewrite data, flash memory is submitted to much higher voltages than for reading, getting weaker each time. This applies to memory cards, pen drives and solid-state drives.

However, a good memory unit's internal circuitry usually detects when a block of data becomes too "fragile" (BTW it also can employ "wear levelling", i.e., write versions of the same data along the unit instead of using the same block over and over, in order to equalize the chances of failure), automatically marking it as unusable.

Consequently, usually flash memory fails gradually - you might notice its capacity getting smaller, and writing becomes slower because the unit must seek healthy portions to use.

On the other hand, apart from S.M.A.R.T. diagnosis and the occasional "click of the death", hard disks seldom give you fair warning in advance of catastrophic failure.

[cfuruti]

Originally Posted by murphyaa

Not sure where I fall in to the backup, but I have an 8gb SD Card always plugged into my laptop. When I can remember, I copy all of my model files to it for a quick backup. Longer term backup goes onto a backup hard drive (after 4 laptop crashes, I have a few spare hard drives lying around).

I got a kit that converts an internal hard drive to an external USB hard drive for about $30 at an electronics store.

And trust me, with my experiences, (4 laptops down and counting) I can't emphasize how important backing everything up is.

Agreed. In the end it's a matter of convenience and safety. I have two 3.5" external units, both like yours assembled from internal disks of my choice (pre-assembled units were either too small, too slow or too expensive); they serve for both "warm" backups and occasionally for moving very large files between computers (it's faster than using the network). Twice or thrice a week I mirror my computers into the external disks. Because, as a protection against theft, the external disks are not kept at hand, sometimes a day's work is temporarily stored in a pen drive instead. And whenever enough data accumulates, backup to DVDs, in triplicate.

BTW I prefer dual USB/eSATA external disks. USB is ubiquitous, but eSATA is faster for large data - almost as fast as an internal SATA disk.

[cfuruti]

Originally Posted by elliott

OK, dumb question - Can you elaborate on optical media, like brand name, where to buy, approximate cost, etc.?

I wouldn't put much trust on brand recommendations, because it seems so easy to counterfeit labels. I mostly use Sony, Philips and Samsung/Pleomax media (recently tried Fortrek - ok), and had nearly no problems with them; on the other hand I got two mostly unusable packs of a local brand. I guess most brands are actually OEMs.

BTW you know optical media can be recorded at different speeds, but there's also a difference in reading speed, which is all-important when you actually use the media. I always fully verify each written DVD, and was surprised to notice that DVD-Rs of a brand A were consistently verified in less than half the time of brand B - both were rated 16x, and actually written at 4x. Yes, A is known and B is a no-name; I wish I could say A is worth the price, but who says I won't get a counterfeit A in the future?

OTOH there are plenty of horror stories, many of them true, about fake pen drives and memory cards. They range from annoying (selling a slow unit for the price of a faster-rated one) to disgusting (a unit relabeled as having greater capacity than actual) to just surreal (units so badly made, they can be rewritten a dozen times than never more).

[hirondelle]

Originally Posted by elliott

OK, dumb question - Can you elaborate on optical media, like brand name, where to buy, approximate cost, etc.?

DVD-Identifier

This prog will tell you what the disc actually is. There are surprisingly very few DVD/BD media fabs around (despite the number of brands) The 'best' are run by Mitsubishi who produce media for Verbatim & Taiyo Yuden. These are premium priced discs & if you g00gle a local supplier you can check what you receive actually is the disc you paid for with that tool. Look for the Mitsubishi Chemical tag.
Use good writing software - imgburn is free & produces consistently good results (worth a donation & better than a lot of big name paid solutions) The associated forum will tell you a lot about hardware/media too.
When burning it's possible to achieve an optimum write speed & pattern for a particular disc brand/RW - eg a slower speed will produce different results (often slower is 'better' in terms of cross-platform readability) & the good discs will often tolerate higher speeds than they are rated at. A 16x verb might be happy at 22x with no loss of quality. However if you read back on a different DVDRW/BDRW you may see there are different results. Always verify a burn is 100% readable. Test on different PCs/readers to see what variables there are.
This forum is one of the best I found that talks about all this technology.
club.myce
They have a variety of reviews & tests available.

Despite counterfeits you can still get really good deals eg <$40 for 100 verbs or 100 TYs. (I'm guessing that is a normal price point for the real thing but it does depend on supplier.)
This was one place that seems to have OK pricing supermediastore (this is a suggestion so you know what you are looking at, I'm not advertising these guys.)

As a final note of caution - I have a number of friends who lost a lot of irreplaceable photos by trusting memory sticks/cards, trust em at your own risk!

[murphyaa]

What I need to figure out how to do is how to back up my laptop. That way, when it dies, I just push a button, and a new one appears.

I wonder if a 3D printer could print out a laptop...