Storeage space for your video. PROS AND CONS….

[Andrew Jezierski]

hardrives seem to offer best longevity and lowest cos per GB. how about renting a P.O. box or a box at you local bank?

Andrew

[Stephen Mann]

A 2Tb drive will cost about $65, and it will fit into a small safe-deposit box. Or make a few copies and share them with other relatives.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Greg Barringer]

I have them on an HDD thas in a safe and t’d burned them to DVD

[Dave Haynie]

Nothing’s perfect.

HDDs are pretty reliable in the intermediate term, and I use ’em extensively for projects — set up a working drive for a new project, pop it out when the project’s over, and it’s the project archive.

Real-world HDDs last at lest five years in continuous use, if they don’t have defects. I’ve returned three or four due to defects, however, and it’s not as if I’m buying 20 per month. Just sitting there, they may last a very long time. Then again, the mechanical bits can bind up, due to stiction or corrosion.

Flash devices don’t have the mechanical issues, but they’re not usually large enough. And the stored charge in a flash cell is only likely good for about 10 years.

Generic DVDs are a terrible idea, because they’re usually just not made that well. The dye compounds can break down, particularly organic dye. They fade quickly in sunlight — hopefully not an archival issue. The reflective layer of most DVDs is silver, which tarnishes. The glues that hold the two poly-carbonate discs together, and protect all the good stuff inside, can fail. And of course, the disc itself can be scratched.

On the other hand, archival quality DVDs _might_ last 200 years or more. They’re kind of expensive, but there’s a new technology coming Real Soon Now that might actually cost less and last longer, called M-Disc: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/92286-m-disc-is-a-dvd-made-out-of-stone-that-lasts-1000-years. You might need new firmware for your DVD drive, or a new DVD drive.

And don’t write off Blu-ray. The original BD-R formulation, known as HTL BD-R (all TDK discs, some others), is not dye-based like CD or DVD, it’s “phase-change” based. The write-once layer is actually two layers, a layer of silicon and a layer of some magical copper alloy. When the laser writes a bit, it melts this, the materials mix, and that makes a physically different dot that can’t fade or reverse itself, and doesn’t fade in light. Blu-ray discs also have a very hard coating, much harder than polycarbonate, so they’re not easily scratched. However, there are now BD-Rs using metal azo dyes, and I’m sure some folks are working on organic dyes, so what used to be universally true about BD no longer is. Of course, BD-Rs have some of the same other physical vulnerabilities as DVD or CD.

The best bet: don’t trust any one thing. And if you have archival discs, either keep making them, or check to see if the old ones still work.

-Dave

[Nigel O’neill]

Trung Dao

As we do not know your location, it is hard for us to recommend off-site companies for archival storage of records.

You would probably be looking for a commerical company that provides a records management and retention service, where they give you access to secure storage that is resistant to fire, flood and natural disasters. Most companies just offer a holding facility which is just shelving in a storage unit somewhere under lock and key. This sort of protection does not come cheap and typically involves a small monthly subscription fee.

I would do as another poster suggested and create a copy of your memories on 1 or more hard drives and give it to a trusted family member or relative to look after. Given the cost of hard drives nowadays, it is a viable option.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6