Content Backup Methods - What do You Do?

richardandtracy

Must admit I'd simply copy the directories onto the backup drive.

namffuak

I use SyncBackPro from 2BrightSparks - fundamentally it is an intelligent copy utility - and a batch of external two and four terabyte external USB drives. I have two sets of backup drives and alternate between them on a weekly basis.

For my Daz assets the procedure is -

Build Cart & place order

Download products with DIM to my dim-download directory on an external USB drive on my laptop via wifi - home or Starbucks or other free site; this is the master copy

Plug my laptop into my wired local network and use SyncBackPro on my off-line render box to to mirror the laptop dim-download directory to a local external USB drive - this is my working copy

Run DIM in offline mode on the render box and install the new content from the working copy

On Sunday evening I use SyncBackPro to mirror the working copy to one of my backup drives, using the one the did not get used the previous Sunday.

The SyncBackPro 'mirror' process walks the source directory, building a list of folders and files including last modified date; then it walks the target directory for the same information and builds a working list of all files on the source directory that either do not exist on the target or have newer modification dates; these files and directories get copied to the target drive. This takes, on average, a bit under 10 minutes; last week it was 7 minutes 54 seconds, 13,356 objects, and 19.93 GB (DIM changes all the modification dates on the .dsx files in the download directory on every online run - that's why the object count is so high).

 

namffuak

richardandtracy said:

How persistent is SSD data compared to HDD data? Is there a tail-off over time like with CD write data? SSD's are new enough for me to know little about the storage duration. And how does their usage life compare to an HDD? You'd expect it to be near infinite, but I've seen references to articles that suggest each storage cell has a finite life, but not actually seen the purported source articles. If so, is it a life that would be short enough to be a consideration for a hobbyist or is it one of those clickbait type stories?

I've seen nothing on data retention while powered off; I get the impression that's a non-isse with SSDs. As to service life, this article is a summation of a write to destruction test on several SSD drives.  The short form answer is that all the drives handled hundreds of terabytes of written data before dying. My render system has a 500 GB SSD system drive; according to CrystalDskInfo it has been powered on for 56,523 hours (6 years 165 days) and has had 7,729 GB (7.6 TB) written to it - and has 96% of the dynamic relocation cells still available.

I no longer use rotating disk in my systems - only as external USB drives for backups, and then in redundant copy mode.

A quick google indicates an SSD pulled and left unpowered for a year should still retain all data - something not likely to happen in my environment.

Mark_e593e0a5

richardandtracy said:

How persistent is SSD data compared to HDD data? Is there a tail-off over time like with CD write data? SSD's are new enough for me to know little about the storage duration. And how does their usage life compare to an HDD? You'd expect it to be near infinite, but I've seen references to articles that suggest each storage cell has a finite life, but not actually seen the purported source articles. If so, is it a life that would be short enough to be a consideration for a hobbyist or is it one of those clickbait type stories?

Depends largely on the technology used. SSD's may use a "cell" to store up to four bits. These quad-level cell SSD's are a bit cheaper, but wear and tear on those is much higher. Plius, SSD's will "forget" their content over time if not regularily connected to a power source - which does not apply to HDD's. So, for just a backup, I do prefer HDD's.