VOGONS


First post, by user33331

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Hello
Thinking about making backups of my game CDs(maybe DVDs also) starting from 1994...
What to use today: ( For speed and durability. )
- USB 3.0 flash sticks ? Is SanDisk best (Extreme version) ?
or
- SSDs ? Intel and Samsung best ?
or
- SD cards ?
What size do you use 128-256gb something that is still cheap but usable...and not crazy size and price ?

Reply 1 of 9, by cyclone3d

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USB sticks... nope.. can die at any time.

SD cards.. nope.. same thing.

SSDs may be safer but they supposedly have certain time of data storage without being powered up after which they will lose the data that was on them.

Safest would maybe be M-disc if you want a physical copy. Can go up to 125GB per disc I believe.

Otherwise save them "in the cloud".

At the very least have them saved on multiple HDDs.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 2 of 9, by GigAHerZ

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Amazon Glacier is dirt cheap, if you don't need to access it often.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!

Reply 3 of 9, by user33331

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"they supposedly have certain time of data storage without being powered up after which they will lose the data that was on them."
- Does regular HDDs have that too they jam or something when not used for a long time. I think HDDs too need to be plugged in and spinned once in a while when stored ?

I have thought about M-DISC too for a long time. I'll order some for test purposes.
- Are M-DISCs still being sold or are they obsolete ?

My XBOX 360 has 3 HDDs for backup 🤣

Reply 4 of 9, by GigAHerZ

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user33331 wrote:

"they supposedly have certain time of data storage without being powered up after which they will lose the data that was on them."
- Does regular HDDs have that too they jam or something when not used for a long time. I think HDDs too need to be plugged in and spinned once in a while when stored ?

No.
Spin-up and spin-down are the most damaging periods in normal use. You want to minimize the count of those.
Data does not fade like that. And spinning up a hdd does not rewrite the hdd every time you do that.
If anything, that's a myth circulating around in the endless internet...

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!

Reply 5 of 9, by cyclone3d

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user33331 wrote:
"they supposedly have certain time of data storage without being powered up after which they will lose the data that was on them […]
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"they supposedly have certain time of data storage without being powered up after which they will lose the data that was on them."
- Does regular HDDs have that too they jam or something when not used for a long time. I think HDDs too need to be plugged in and spinned once in a while when stored ?

I have thought about M-DISC too for a long time. I'll order some for test purposes.
- Are M-DISCs still being sold or are they obsolete ?

My XBOX 360 has 3 HDDs for backup 🤣

You have to have an M-Disc witer to write M-Discs. Yes, they come in DVD size, but a regular DVD writer will not write M-Disc discs.

I've looked into this recently for a work project and the only one I can recommend thus far as far as reviews by actual users go is this ASUS drive though it pains me so to recommend ASUS products as their warranty support in the USA is pretty much a big "screw you" to their customers thanks to them farming the RMAs out to a low life 3rd party company.
https://www.asus.com/us/Optical-Drives-Storage/BW16D1HT/

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 6 of 9, by DosFreak

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On a FreeNAS server with ECC memory and RAIDZ3 storage with external QNAP and Synology NAS for offsite storage. Replace the hard drives every 3 or 5 yrs.

Been working fine for my game and movie ISOs since 2007.

It's either that or tape for longterm storage.

Mabye a device that can scan the pits and lands and store it on a diamond? heh.

Linus Torvalds — 'Only wimps use tape backup. REAL men just upload their important stuff on ftp and let the rest of the world mirror it.'

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Make your games work offline

Reply 7 of 9, by cyclone3d

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DosFreak wrote:

Linus Torvalds — 'Only wimps use tape backup. REAL men just upload their important stuff on ftp and let the rest of the world mirror it.'

Only problem with that is that a lot of ftps are never mirrored and then what happens when somebody needs a driver for some obscure piece of hardware that nobody ever bothered to save?

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 8 of 9, by Caluser2000

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Hdds would be the go. External ones are quite cheap these days. I've got a lot of older hhds here less than 500gigs and all of them were fine apart from one gave up the ghost during recent testing.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉