Video summary
The video addresses a common concern among content creators and tech enthusiasts regarding the reliability of long-term data storage, specifically focusing on strategies for retaining files over a five-to-seven-year period. The host shares a personal anecdote about losing access to critical archives stored on a Drobo device that had been offline for over a year, highlighting the risks associated with relying solely on local hardware without active maintenance or migration plans. This experience underscores the importance of having a robust, multi-layered storage architecture that combines local redundancy with offsite backups to mitigate risks such as drive failure, theft, or physical destruction of the primary device. The discussion emphasizes that while local storage offers speed and immediate access, it must be paired with a separate, geographically distinct backup solution to ensure data survival in catastrophic scenarios.
To achieve this balance between cost-effectiveness and security, the speakers outline a tiered approach involving on-premise Synology NAS units and cloud services like iDrive or Amazon S3 Glacier. One contributor explains their strategy of maintaining two layers of local storage: one for active workloads with fault tolerance against single drive failures, and another dedicated to long-term archival data that is periodically synced to an offsite cloud provider. They note that while cloud providers like AWS offer complex pricing structures involving retrieval fees and varying storage rates, services like iDrive provide a simpler flat-rate model that abstracts away these technical complexities for the user. The consensus is that users should carefully calculate whether the cost of renting external storage outweighs the expense of investing in high-quality local hardware, such as rotational hard drives with appropriate redundancy, to create a sustainable hybrid system.
A significant portion of the conversation revolves around the inevitable reality of "bit rot" and media degradation, which necessitates a proactive data migration strategy similar to how people move their physical belongings when changing houses. The hosts discuss the limitations of older media formats like DVDs and floppy disks, which degrade over time and may become unreadable after decades of storage in suboptimal conditions. Consequently, they advocate for a continuous cycle of moving data from local archives to cloud backups or new local drives every few years to prevent data loss due to corruption. This process requires discipline and regular attention, as waiting too long to migrate files can result in the permanent loss of valuable assets like raw audio recordings or historical documents that users might desperately need when they finally decide to discard old storage media.
Ultimately, the video concludes that building a viable long-term storage plan is an ongoing project rather than a one-time setup, requiring users to accept some initial costs for peace of mind and future accessibility. The speakers encourage viewers to audit their current systems, identify any dormant drives or forgotten backup jobs, and establish a routine for syncing critical archives to offsite locations. By adopting a hierarchical approach that distinguishes between data needing immediate access and data meant for posterity, individuals can manage their digital lives more effectively without overspending on unnecessary redundancy. The takeaway is clear: while no system is immune to failure or time, a well-planned combination of local resilience and cloud reliability ensures that important files remain safe even if one layer of the storage stack fails completely.
Read the full video transcript
today, anyway. Hello, gentlemen. I'm
sorry to bring up this topic again.
Please don't apologize. Uh he says I
my storage is getting full and I'd like
to have a very long-range plan for
storage. Yes, it may initially cost a
bit, but if it will last at least 5 to 7
years, I think it's worth it. I know you
are all very busy, but if you have a
couple of minutes, would you please
explain your system and list the
specific equipment that you use for
long-range long-term storage, not
long-range storage. Long-term storage.
>> Okay. So,
I thought my solution for
>> [laughter]
>> long-term storage,
well, I know that I have I have cloud
backups. Uh so, that is in place. So, um
I use Backblaze. I have stuff in iCloud.
Um
some of few other places and stuff like
that, but like for the longest time, my
main storage was my uh Drobo. That was
kind of my like archive backup. I had
Acronis Sync jobs set up one way that
would take things from my Mac on a
regular basis that I cared about and
wanted to archive and move them into
archive
folder structures that were on
my uh Drobo.
>> Yep.
>> When I got when I upgraded to my
M4 machine,
um knowing that Drobo was slowly going
away,
I had made a plan I had made a plan and
thought I had executed this plan
to move all that stuff from my Drobo
to my Synology. And I think I have a
DS423+
is the model that I have currently.
>> Okay.
>> Um cuz he asked for specifics and had
migrated my Chronosync tasks and all
that to go to the disk station.
I just went to look for those files.
They're not there. So, I think I made
this plan in my head
and then never completed the execution.
And now I'm really worried cuz this
Drobo has been turned off for
a year, probably.
Or more.
So, I don't know what's going to happen
when I turn it on. And and what's on
there is the like There's some stuff on
there that I really want, like
all of the MacCast episodes in their
raw, like
uh GarageBand formats are in there from
episode 1 all the way through. So, I may
be in trouble. I may have lost data. Uh
but so, my project this week will be to
see if I can start getting that stuff
over to the Synology. So, the plan is
it's going to be the Synology plus cloud
backup of the critical stuff that's also
in the Synology, if that makes sense.
>> Yep.
I
I do the same thing.
Um
I I and I'm sure I've done the same
thing and I'm not even aware of it that
that that you're doing where I think
I've
got data backed up and I don't. Uh I'm
sure of that. But I I store everything,
you know, I have two layers of long-term
storage. My Synology is my local layer.
And then I have essentially on my
Synology, I have two buckets. I have
to archive, which is to go to offsite
long-term storage, and not to archive,
which is the stuff that I'm okay staying
local and relying only on the Synology's
fault tolerance for when a drive dies.
But if the unit were stolen or
destroyed, I would lose things. Uh
and for my cloud backups,
I'm actually using a service and have
been for years called iDrive. Uh
it
>> Yeah, it it's essentially just an like
an Amazon S3 compatible
destination. It's bulk storage online.
And that way I can use it with whatever
app I want. Um the most of what I'm
using it with is Synology Hyper Backup.
Uh which would also support Backblaze. I
just I did a whole thing about pricing
years ago and wound up deciding that
IDrive was the right price then. They're
really smart. They give you your first
year at like I think even less than half
price, but you know you know how that
goes. So, [laughter]
uh
you're not going to move. So, as long as
it you know stays relatively uh
reasonably priced. And And they'll give
you 10 gigs free, but yeah, no, IDrive
is is the thing I'm I still use and I
just renewed my subscription for another
year. I think I have a couple of
terabytes there. And I think that cost
me I don't know 100 bucks a year or
something and
um
and and then I can manage it with
whatever I want, which for me is Hyper
Backup for the most part. ARQ on my Mac
uh is the other app that I would use to
to do that stuff um to get it off there
to IDrive. But um
Hyper Backup because it's all coming
from most of it's coming from my
Synology does most of it.
So.
There you go.
What about you, Pete?
>> I you know
I just which since you said Drobo, I
kind of went into a uh
gridlock in the brain cuz I I same
thing. I had the
I haven't had turned on a Drobo in years
and then I found all kinds of support
files on my computer and I'm like,
uh-oh, what's it been trying to do? But
now um
yeah.
Lo- local storage uh on my Synology is
is
is my my main one uh using and I I
mentioned uh actually pre-show
something we thought I should have but I
can is because it's out now is
SuperDuper has a new uh
>> Oh, yeah. The new SuperDuper.
>> New SuperDuper is out and what I have
done there is backed up my home folder
to a folder on my Synology Drive which I
didn't think was an option before. You
seem to think it might have been. I had
just never tried it.
>> Yeah.
>> So
>> Yeah, I do that.
>> But I really like it. It's got a nice
interface in that on the left side
you choose your source. On the right
side you choose your destination. It's
it's very Apple-esque. Very nice. Um,
and then it
it goes it tells you how long it's going
to take how how much it's transfer what
it's transfer rate is all that sort of
stuff. What percentage is done. Um, I
actually paused while we're doing the
show just just to be careful. But
>> Sure.
>> [laughter]
>> But it did fail once at one point and I
think I think my Synology dropped
offline just long enough for it to go
stupid. And so but as soon as I hit
resume it came right back up.
So
>> It's great.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, and KiwiGrams is pointing out and
I was going to mention this that Pete
you know now we've migrated into more of
a backup strategy like I think
SuperDuper Carbon Copy Cloner uh
Backblaze
syncing my home folder to my Synology
that all falls for me in the that's like
short-term immediate backup where I
think Roy was more asking about you know
those files that you don't need
immediate access to but you just like I
was saying like I don't need yeah
episode one GarageBand files of the Mac
Cast, right? But I want to save those
files for posterity. Like where are
those living long-term where I know I
can go grab them and get them.
>> Got it. Yeah.
>> And part of the problem with archive
storage we've talked about this too is
you know the concept of bit rot. So,
like if you move it to some sort of
media like I know I also
have
somewhere in my house cuz I didn't I was
smart enough not to leave them in the
garage, but I have
I used to burn DVD backups of all that
stuff and I have a massive
set of DVDs, but I have you know, like
they're probably not readable. They're
probably starting to delaminate or
degrade or some way or floppies or
whatever. So, you have to like
constantly move this stuff over and that
was my solution with the Mac OS files
was well, so I moved them over to the
Drobo and then now I need to get them
onto the Synology and then, you know,
into new iCloud new cloud storage and
you're constantly having to like
drag this stuff along. It's just like
the stuff in your house that you want to
like keep forever like your old high
school yearbooks and stuff like that.
They just like follow you along as you
move from place to place.
>> [laughter]
>> You have to do that with your digital
life too, unfortunately for now. I don't
know, maybe in future there'll be some
sort of solution, but
But you know, as soon as you throw it
something you've held in a closet for
over 25 years, as soon as you throw it
away, you need it.
>> Yeah.
>> It It happened to me. So.
>> And I I think to Roy's
question,
um
perhaps you know, Roy said, "I know it's
going to be expensive, but I think it'll
be worth it." And and I think
I know I do this, I think we all do
this, but we didn't really articulate
it. You know, I I noted that I have
things on I moved things to my Synology.
And then certain things from my Synology
go to my off-prem storage, which for me
is generally I drive,
you know, via something. And
the reason not everything goes to
off-prem storage is price.
Uh it dollars, right? So, I make a
calculation, is it worth it to me to
spend the money that it will cost me to
rent storage from someone else over
there to keep this stuff on it, or is it
you know, my my on-prem storage isn't
free, but it's way less expensive than
my off-prem storage is. If I do it
right, like I can I can spend a lot of
money for on-prem. I could choose to put
everything on, you know, SSDs with two
drive fault tolerance and probably, you
know, put myself in the poorhouse real
fast. Uh especially with SSD prices
today.
But I don't. I use one drive fault
tolerance. I use rotational drives, and
I generally I'm pretty
um
I you know, I've I've I've built a
cost-effective solution
that also then has this off-prem kind of
you know, so my archives are in two
different places, and uh there is fault
tolerance for one of those places, and
then the other is truly a backup of my
archive. So,
you know, take kind of
>> Merge Kiwi Gram's point in or Kiwi
Bruce's point, sorry, in with
>> Yeah, that's right. In with with Royce's
question of or his his his concern that
I know it's going to be expensive, but
it's worth it. You can
it it you know, take hopefully taking
what we've said here, you can
start to manage somewhere those costs
are
>> Yeah.
>> uh important, you know, and and at what
level.
>> Yeah, there's a hierarchy of needs,
right? That that this maps into. It's
it's the same thing you do again with
your personal stuff every time you move,
right? It's like,
is it worth it for me to move this
stuff, or is it time to just let that
piece go cuz I don't care about it as
much as I thought I did 5 years ago, you
know.
>> Here's one I used briefly and had
forgotten about. I I don't use it
anymore, but I they still offer it and
it's relatively cheap to store. You
incur your costs when you get it back is
Amazon Web Services.
>> Yeah.
>> Well, I came across Amazon Glacier.
>> Yeah, that's right.
>> Yeah, yeah, Amazon S3 Glacier.
>> Um
Yeah,
I mean, I
Yes, I I don't want to I don't want to
say that
universally.
Um
I did a deep pretty deep dive into
costs of
cloud-based archive storage. And as I
said, I drive I what I didn't list was
all of the other things that I looked at
>> Oh, okay.
>> when I decided on I drive. Glacier was
certainly a part of it because they all
are just S3 compatible endpoints.
I drive was for what I needed at the
size that I needed and the the way that
I use it, I drive was like far and away
the least expensive. But it is worth
considering Amazon. Just don't I didn't
want to say universally, it's cheap.
Well, compared to other things it is,
but compared to I drive for my uses it
was not. So.
>> Well,
>> Yeah, go ahead.
>> You're going to say what? A kibble gram
put, yeah.
>> Take it.
>> S3 prices are complicated and so like
it's what a service for like I drive can
do for you is take that complexity out,
right? Cuz you're just paying them a
flat rate for a set amount of storage
even though on their end they're
figuring out all the complicated stuff
and deciding what's going to work for
them, I would assume.
>> I 100% agree.
>> Yeah.
>> Yep, they probably are storing this on,
you know, one of Amazon services. Like
it would be
>> Probably multiple.
>> Probably multiple, exactly. Yeah, but
it's it's not it
I I yeah, it's it's complicated.
>> [laughter]
>> That's the only way.
>> It's like the only efficient thing I can
say is what Keyword Gram says.
>> Yeah, it's like tenths of pennies for
transfers and then so much for storage
and so much for down and up and like you
don't make your brain hurt again. Like
>> [laughter]
>> back to the Obsidian thing. Just like
all right, I don't want to deal with
that. Just tell me how much it's going
to cost to store this much and that's
all I need to know.