/Reliable/ backup solution for home?

[A complimentary Cc of this posting was sent to
Scott W
<biphoto.DeleteThis@hotmail.com>], who wrote in article <1171739293.752405.67060.DeleteThis@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>:
> Man if you are only getting a couple of years out of DVDs you must be
> doing something very wrong. I have yet to have a DVD fail and I have
> CDRs that I burned over 9 years ago and still no problems.

I do not recall hearing about any problem with CDRs. DVDs are
entirely different topic; the problems (with "reputed" media and
burners) are very widespread. Out of hundreds I burned (Tayo Yugen,
mostly) very large percentage failed.

Time to time people who saw no problem whatsoever DO appear. They are
in a minority; I saw no obvious correlation with the burner used.

> I have a number of external hard drives none of which has failed,
> the oldest is coming up on 4 years old.

HDs are very sensitive to environment. Your good experience with DVDs
is most probably related to "good luck" (e.g., a burner which is
out-of-spec in the "good" direction . A good experience with HDs
is most probably attributable to your good care and good supply of
electricity. The question is whether you want TO RELY on your hand
never wavering, no lightning nearby, etc... If you want to have extra
leeway, then you need high-RAID.

Hope this helps,
Ilya

Ilya Zakharevich wrote:
>
> [A complimentary Cc of this posting was sent to
> Paul W
> <1337usr.DeleteThis@gmail.com>], who wrote in article <1171535498.547091.285560.DeleteThis@q2g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>:
> > Hello,
> >
> > If I need to store 100s of GBs of photos and I need duplicate backup
> > (mirrored), what would be the most reliable home backup solution?
>
> Given that PORTABLE external HD and writable DVDs has expected
> lifetime of a couple of years at most, the only viable solution is a
> combination of a STATIONARY external RAID array (in a no-delete mode,
> if you know how to set it up), and of writing several copies of DVD IN
> ADDITION to RAID.
>
> Given that I have no RAID, I backup to 2 spindles of an in-computer
> HDs, and to 2-3 DVDs. And I MUST keep my fingers crossed...
>
> Hope this helps,
> Ilya


Hello, Ilya:

"Given that PORTABLE external HD and writable DVDs has expected lifetime
of a couple of years at most..." -- what is your source of such obvious
misinformation?

Also, if you don't mind, please refrain from sending me a "complimentary
Cc of this posting." :-J

Thank you.


Cordially,
John Turco <jtur.DeleteThis@concentric.net>