Data Storage

[R. Richard]

I have 233 published for pay stories and several publishers. Keeping things straight was a chore. I then found a China outfit that sold me a 512 Gigabyte (NOT Megabyte) USB flash drive for under $10 USD. Now, I have all of my stories and covers on the flash drive. with a folder for each publisher and a sub folder for each story. For under $10 USD, I also have a backup flash drive. I have only been at this for about a month, but so far, everything works well.
To use a phrase from the beautiful Hawaiian language. "It's mo bettah!"

 

[rjordan]

I have 233 published for pay stories and several publishers. Keeping things straight was a chore. I then found a China outfit that sold me a 512 Gigabyte (NOT Megabyte) USB flash drive for under $10 USD. Now, I have all of my stories and covers on the flash drive. with a folder for each publisher and a sub folder for each story. For under $10 USD, I also have a backup flash drive. I have only been at this for about a month, but so far, everything works well.
To use a phrase from the beautiful Hawaiian language. "It's mo bettah!"

To use a phrase experienced motorcycle riders use when recommending a helmet. "How much is your head worth?"

rj

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Yeah, I have 3 - 1 terabyte hard drives. Each has a copy of my MyStories folder and my websites.

Then I have a 64 gigabyte miroSD flash drive that 10 of the last months copies of my story folder on it, plus the backup x 10 of my websites.

Then I have an 8 gigabyte flash drive with the latest and greatest of my MyStories folder.

 

[CeasarBoobage]

It may be a pain to keep organized, but I believe that having multiple backups is for the best. Even though cheap storage is enticing, I feel that you get what you pay for. The cheapest $ per GB isn't always going to last long without corrupting data or simply deciding to not work one day.

Regardless of your storage methods or costs, I would recommend having more. Two flash drives, hard drive backups, and maybe a copy on a cloud drive as well

 

[DreamCloud]

This day and age, I use the cloud. It is my primary storage, local for backups.

There are a lot of free and/or cheap methods for duplicating a drive in the cloud. It's handled blindly, and with encryption if you so desire. Carbonite is $60 a year and protects against logical as well as physical errors.

Drives fail, it is not an if, but a when. It will happen.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

It may be a pain to keep organized, but I believe that having multiple backups is for the best. Even though cheap storage is enticing, I feel that you get what you pay for. The cheapest $ per GB isn't always going to last long without corrupting data or simply deciding to not work one day.

Regardless of your storage methods or costs, I would recommend having more. Two flash drives, hard drive backups, and maybe a copy on a cloud drive as well

In most cases a flash drive is more reliable than a hard drive...no moving parts.

Flash drives will last for tens of thousands of write operations per block before degrading. You will however be able to read from the drive forever.

So far in the past year, I have had 2 disk drives fail and no flash drives fail.

A flash drive will let you know when it is having trouble writing data...this includes delete...it will start to take a significantly longer time to perform those writes. Luckily failure doesn't mean useless. You will still be able to read from a failed flash drive.

As for cloud storage...some claim that whatever you store in their cloud is their property once uploaded. Read the fine print. Mainly those free chucks of cloud storage.

 

[FantasyXY]

I use a Network Attached Storage (NAS) box. My NAS is configured with redundant (RAID-0 Mirror) terabyte drives and a job runs on all of my PCs to copy data to my NAS nightly. The NAS can be accessed either through WiFi or through my wired LAN. This is like having cloud storage at home, and I have 100% control of the data.

All of this is in place to simplify my life. If I didn't have the NAS, I would be copying files to a thumb drive... and of course I would forget to do it most of the time.

 

[oggbashan]

Years ago, when I first started to write on computers, I was using an IBM XT with a 10mb hard drive and 5.25 360K floppies.

I could store everything I had written as .txt files on one 360K floppy. I had the complete text of the King James Bible on another 360K floppy. I needed two floppies if I stored my stories as WS2000 files.

Even now, I can store all my stories including the old drafts, the incomplete stories and the ideas, on one CD without converting them from Word to .txt. I have the .txt versions on that CD as well.

I create a new CD every week so my latest stories and most recent drafts are backed up on that CD. My work is also in the cloud as part of my anti-virus package.

http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/xtsystem.jpg

 

[R. Richard]

I use thumb/flash usb drives to back up my stories. I can take my thumb drives with me, if I need to use anther computer. The process of transferring a story folder to a thumb drive is a simple copy/paste operation and then a paste operation for the second thumb drive.
If I need to edit a story backup, I can do that with a thumb drive, not so with a CD or cheap DVD.
I don't like the idea of having my stories on someone else's disk storage.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

My MyStories folder contains...

1.89 GB (2,033,695,987 bytes) in 3,617 Files in 371 Folders a mix of text, word and graphic(covers) files.

And compressing the directory... well it doesn't save much.

1.50 GB (1,613,160,448 bytes) only saving .49 GB of space.

 

[CeasarBoobage]

In most cases a flash drive is more reliable than a hard drive...no moving parts.

Flash drives will last for tens of thousands of write operations per block before degrading. You will however be able to read from the drive forever.

So far in the past year, I have had 2 disk drives fail and no flash drives fail.

A flash drive will let you know when it is having trouble writing data...this includes delete...it will start to take a significantly longer time to perform those writes. Luckily failure doesn't mean useless. You will still be able to read from a failed flash drive.

As for cloud storage...some claim that whatever you store in their cloud is their property once uploaded. Read the fine print. Mainly those free chucks of cloud storage.

I am slightly disagreeing with you regarding flash storage. With no mechanical parts, they usually do live a long life, mostly free from data degradation. However, my personal experience is that out of the dozen or so flash drives that I've used, both name brand and generic crap, there have been about five(ish) that have died for no good reason. I'm fairly religious about 'ejecting' the drive before I remove it, and the ones that died were completely unreadable by anything that I tried to use it with (various versions of: linux, windows, mac, car stereo). Just like every other piece of storage technology, flash storage isn't immortal, so keep yourself well insured with multiple options.

Hard drives? Like many others on this board, my job is in IT, and I've seen hundreds of drives die for many reasons. With various techniques, I've been able to save data from most of them when it was requested, but die they do. On that note, using a RAID setup is a must for NAS-type devices.

The cloud is an odd beast. The provider may try to claim ownership, but it's usually not in their best interest to try to take you to court over it. If you're into selling your stuff for hard cash, there is a chance they may try to take you to court to immorally (but legally) gain some profit from your work, but how realistic is it? Even if your story does well in the marketplace and makes you $1k a year, is it worth it for Dropbox to spend $5k in lawyer/court costs to gain a small percentage? Especially if/when they get massive bad press for doing it? If nothing else, email yourself a copy of every story, from outline to edit-ready to published; it isn't likely that large email providers like Gmail will die anytime soon, nor will most of them lose your data.

On a related note...
Think about the device you write on. If you're writing your stories using a computing device (laptop, desktop, table, or phone) owned by your employer, or if you're using their network to upload your stories, they can also claim ownership of your work. If your company pays for your home internet usage, they may be able to claim limited ownership rights to your work. It's in your contract and/or HR's policy agreements that you've signed. Really. Take a look. Just like with the cloud storage option, the chances of them trying to barge in and take your work as their own is remote, unless there's a chance that your works could infringe on your employment agreement. Or if they are thieves.

Long story short:
Spread the wealth. Don't rely on only one form of a backup. Learn from my mistakes - let my bad decisions keep you from making the same mistakes. I don't think it's safe to use less than three locations to store any data you want preserved, so make more than one copy of everything you want preserved, and don't keep them all at the same location.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I am slightly disagreeing with you regarding flash storage. With no mechanical parts, they usually do live a long life, mostly free from data degradation. However, my personal experience is that out of the dozen or so flash drives that I've used, both name brand and generic crap, there have been about five(ish) that have died for no good reason. I'm fairly religious about 'ejecting' the drive before I remove it, and the ones that died were completely unreadable by anything that I tried to use it with (various versions of: linux, windows, mac, car stereo). Just like every other piece of storage technology, flash storage isn't immortal, so keep yourself well insured with multiple options.

Hard drives? Like many others on this board, my job is in IT, and I've seen hundreds of drives die for many reasons. With various techniques, I've been able to save data from most of them when it was requested, but die they do. On that note, using a RAID setup is a must for NAS-type devices.

The cloud is an odd beast. The provider may try to claim ownership, but it's usually not in their best interest to try to take you to court over it. If you're into selling your stuff for hard cash, there is a chance they may try to take you to court to immorally (but legally) gain some profit from your work, but how realistic is it? Even if your story does well in the marketplace and makes you $1k a year, is it worth it for Dropbox to spend $5k in lawyer/court costs to gain a small percentage? Especially if/when they get massive bad press for doing it? If nothing else, email yourself a copy of every story, from outline to edit-ready to published; it isn't likely that large email providers like Gmail will die anytime soon, nor will most of them lose your data.

On a related note...
Think about the device you write on. If you're writing your stories using a computing device (laptop, desktop, table, or phone) owned by your employer, or if you're using their network to upload your stories, they can also claim ownership of your work. If your company pays for your home internet usage, they may be able to claim limited ownership rights to your work. It's in your contract and/or HR's policy agreements that you've signed. Really. Take a look. Just like with the cloud storage option, the chances of them trying to barge in and take your work as their own is remote, unless there's a chance that your works could infringe on your employment agreement. Or if they are thieves.

Long story short:
Spread the wealth. Don't rely on only one form of a backup. Learn from my mistakes - let my bad decisions keep you from making the same mistakes. I don't think it's safe to use less than three locations to store any data you want preserved, so make more than one copy of everything you want preserved, and don't keep them all at the same location.

Sorry to hear about your flash drive problems. The very first flash drive I ever had was a give away by the company I worked for. That was in early 2000...it's still working. It's only a 4 mb flashdrive but it works.

I have never ejected the flash drive before removing it from the USB port. I made sure it was finished reading or writing before I did, but using eject? Nope, never had. And I never had a drive fail.

That first flash was manufactured by IBM. All my other flash drives are by Kingston or Scan Disk. I have found ScanDisk to be the best value.

 

[RejectReality]

I have mine backed up with Carbonite. I'm terrible about remembering to do things like that manually. My stories should all still be backed up as attached files on email from sending/receiving with my editor as well. They're also on three different story sites, and my own website in Kindle and RTF format.

Which reminds me that the embargo period has passed, and I need to get my latest story formatted and up there.

Oddly enough, in all these years, I've never had a hard drive or flash drive fail, and I've had systems in daily use for as much as a decade. As a matter of fact, one of those nearly decade-old hard drives is attached to my current computer through a USB enclosure, and is still working fine.

Had one instance where my wife picked up a virus through a file transfer on an instant messenger that corrupted every .jpg on our system, though.

Fortunately, most of it was recoverable through assorted channels. It took months, though. Now, I could just pull them all off Carbonite in a day.

 

[FantasyXY]

I have had flash drives fail because of removing them without first using the eject/disconnect. This proneness to failure seems to be a Microsoft "feature" within their operating systems.

Also, for those using free and cheap flash drives... The "free" flash drive is one of the most common ways to deploy cyber attacks.

 

[sr71plt]

A backup for most of my stuff is multiple story sites, like Lit. Storage outside my own computers is the reason I posted to Lit. to begin with.

 

[49greg]

I have a couple of flash/thumb drives, I think something like 17 megs each. One I just put stories on and update every week or so, sometimes several times a week. The other backs up all my data files every month or two.

I was given a seagate drive thingy, a bit smaller than a deck of cards that backs up everything. I don't use it as often as I should, I originally planned on doing it every month but haven't dug it out in over a year. You'd think I'd be more careful, having had my last two laptops die on me unexpectedly.

As for flash drives going bad after pulling them out without 'ejecting' them. I didn't know about that when I first started using them and didn't have problems. My wife turned white when she saw me yank it without getting permission. I do it now.

 

[Jose_Rick]

I've worked in IT longer than I care to state, and can confidently separate everyone into those who have had storage devices fail and those that will. From what I've seen, hard drives are more reliable than flash. Your mileage may vary.

I like to have two copies of any important file at home, on separate physical disks (not logical disks - and if you don't know the difference, learn it), and one copy off-site, because even two physically separated computers or a NAS device could both be destroyed at the same time in the event of a fire or some other disaster that destroys the building.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I've worked in IT longer than I care to state, and can confidently separate everyone into those who have had storage devices fail and those that will. From what I've seen, hard drives are more reliable than flash. Your mileage may vary.

I like to have two copies of any important file at home, on separate physical disks (not logical disks - and if you don't know the difference, learn it), and one copy off-site, because even two physically separated computers or a NAS device could both be destroyed at the same time in the event of a fire or some other disaster that destroys the building.

Not according to my data. I have had more disk drives fail (3) than flash drives (0). One of those disk drives fail right out of the box. Another after about a week. The third lasted six years. All of them were Seagate.

Maybe I'm just unlucky with hard drives. But I have six 2 gigbyte hard drives that have been running for about 15 years. Not continuously, but a lot of the time. They just happen to be Western Digital drives.

 

[sr71plt]

Does no one use microfiche anymore?

 

[rjordan]

Does no one use microfiche anymore?

I have a microfiche reader in my garage, and a pile of microfiche parts catalogs for now-classic motorcycles. Occasionally, I have to blow off the dust and fire it up. A few I've had converted to digital files, but most are not worth it for the few times I use them.

I'm not nostalgic about ANY of the old writing and publishing technology. Manual typewriters sucked, carbon paper sucked, microfiche sucked, tape recorders sucked, film cameras sucked, slide projectors sucked, light tables sucked, darkrooms sucked, waxed galleys sucked...

rj

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm not nostalgic about ANY of the old writing and publishing technology. Manual typewriters sucked, carbon paper sucked, microfiche sucked, tape recorders sucked, film cameras sucked, slide projectors sucked, light tables sucked, darkrooms sucked, waxed galleys sucked...

Mimeographs smelled nice, though!

I suspect one day we'll look back at keyboards and mice in the same way. "You had to enter stuff into the computer with your fingers? Over and over for hours a day? Wasn't that bad for you?"

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Mimeographs smelled nice, though!

I suspect one day we'll look back at keyboards and mice in the same way. "You had to enter stuff into the computer with your fingers? Over and over for hours a day? Wasn't that bad for you?"

Carpel Tunnel...so yes, it is/was (depending on your time zone).

 

[Jose_Rick]

Not according to my data. I have had more disk drives fail (3) than flash drives (0). One of those disk drives fail right out of the box. Another after about a week. The third lasted six years. All of them were Seagate.

This kind of track record is why mass storage devices and anything intended for high availability is designed not to be immune to failure but to handle it gracefully. The first time I had a server with hot swappable drives I thought I'd landed in Valhalla. One of the them failed when it was less than six months old.

 

[Handley_Page]

Mimeographs smelled nice, though!

I suspect one day we'll look back at keyboards and mice in the same way. "You had to enter stuff into the computer with your fingers? Over and over for hours a day? Wasn't that bad for you?"

Reminds me of one of the better Star Trek lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9kTVZiJ3Uc

 

[Handley_Page]

Mimeographs smelled nice, though!

I suspect one day we'll look back at keyboards and mice in the same way. "You had to enter stuff into the computer with your fingers? Over and over for hours a day? Wasn't that bad for you?"

Reminds me of one of the better Star Trek lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9kTVZiJ3Uc

Personally, I love the old IBM 'clanky' keyboard. You can get up a good speed with it, and it's ideal for fingers like mine. . .