Overview, types of storage:
- Primary – RAM, volatile memory
- Instantaneous access time (in nanosecond area)
- Secondary – non-volatile, harddisks (magnetic/HDD), SSD, floppy disks, tape drives
- Tertiary storage – a.k.a. nearline storage
- Off-line storage – optical discs, flash drives, …
Online / Production (1) | Backup (2) | Archive (3) | |
General description | Instant use, continuously used, all the time the computer is on and in use | Making copy of the current and active data in use, copy of Online (1) data on different medias and locations – do note plurals. | Repositories for data that one wants to be kept for a long period of time but is not necessarily important for operational activities. |
For | Operating system, applications, and all your data (configurations, documents) | Optimally, all data from Online (1) is saved onto some backup device(s) – i.e. including OS, apps, and all data. | Important documents, emails, messages, photos, video, audio (multimedia), … but also – and DON’T forget this – *applications* and *hardware* that can read and work with archive media and data, over a long time (think decades for personal photo album). |
Data size relation | All Current | “1:1” to “1/2:1” or “2:1” to All Current. I.e. all or some parts of Current is backed up (may exclude OS, apps) (represented by 1/2:1), or could be the reverse – Backup disk is larger than Prod, for multiple copies on same disk (like VMs and Snapshots). | “N:1”, N being larger than 1, over time. I.e. over time, archived data will “always” be larger than Current. |
Example | 1 TB disk | 500 GB SSD ext. disk for backups of docs, 2 TB SSD ext disk for (e.g.) Time Machine |
5 TB ext HDD disk, media, docs 2 TB cloud svc, media, docs + more HDD disks, cloud svcs |
Characteristics | * Speed, Reliability – more important – Cost is less important |
* Speed, Reliability – more important – Cost is still less important |
* Longevity – reliability over long time |
Good solutions |
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- General
- Backup vs Archive
- Backup
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup
- 3-2-1 rule
- at least 3 copies of data
- stored on 2 different types of media
- and 1 copy should be kept offsite
- 3-2-1 rule
- google.com/search?q=storage+three+copies+rule
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup
- Archiving
- google.com/search?q=how+best+to+archive+digital+photos
- techradar.com/best/best-ways-to-backup-photos, has a quite good overview!
- Use recordable media
- Use an external drive
- Use multiple software libraries
Apple used to offer Aperture to help organize photos, but there are alternatives available such as iPhoto Library Manager, [up to 10.13, 10.14 and later NOT supported] and the same trick works in iPhoto as well.
The concept is simple: Move older, unused, and duplicate images to a separate library stored on an external drive, preferably one that doesn’t see daily use. .. - Save photos to the cloud
… Some of the more popular options cloud storage options include Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and others, including many offer mobile apps that can be configured to automatically back up the Camera Roll of iOS and Android devices. … - Use free cloud photo services
- Print them out (just in case)
- Backup, rinse, repeat
… Services like CrashPlan, Carbonite, or LiveDrive can securely back up entire desktop system …
- theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2018/apr/12/how-can-i-store-my-digital-photos-for-ever-external-hard-drive
More technical, speeds, …