Use Harddisks to Store the Master Archive

The first decision of the project is to find the right technology for storing the archive. Storage technologies are developing fast, capacity is increasing and prices are dropping. Recording equipment is also developing fast to greatly improve the quality of the recorded material. This implies increased size of the recorded data. Countering this trend are improvements in compression technology. In this state of flux I need to strike a balance that will last several years without major changes.

Considering that the archive will be the master data for all future, and that we are expecting ever higher quality requirements, I want to store the data with the highest quality I can afford, trying to be future proof. This means that I want to use the most recent and best recording equipment and avoid lossy compression of the data as much as possible.

How much data do I then need to store? Let's do a rough calculation. Counting my stock and adding some headroom for the next couple of years, and assuming little or no compression:

500 LP records and music casettes, each 400 MB                 200 GB

500 CDs                                                              600 MB                 300 GB

20 000 photos                                                         3 MB                   60 GB

20 000 documents                                                 2 MB                   40 GB

30 video tapes of 1 hour each                           10 GB                 300 GB

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Total                                                                                                   900 GB

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Thus I need to plan for an initial capacity in the order of 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte with smooth extension to several TBs in the future. Candidate technologies capable of storing this amount are:

  - Harddisk  

  - CD/DVD

  - Magnetic tape

Today the choice is easy in my opinion: Use harddisks. Harddisk drives (HDD) have had a remarkable development in recent years with dramatic increases in capacity while at the same time prices have decreased. We can now buy a 500 GB internal HDD for $100 making it the cheapest and most versatile way of storing data. 1 TB units are also available, however, still at 50% higher price per byte. But next year the story will be different and the industry is already promising us 4 TB drives by 2010. Since a computer can be fitted with several HDDs, storing my data will not be a problem. Capacity is abundantly and cheaply available.

CDs or DVDs are out of the question. You would need 1500 CDs or 200 DVDs to store 1 TB, and even with dual layer blueray 20 disks would be needed. Such a number of optical disks cannot reasonably be held online all the time, and would require a lot of time-consuming manual handling. Magtape is also out as master storage for the archive. Magtape drives are not random access so data retrieval and updating are quite cumbersome, and presently there is no cost advantage.

The IDE interface standard is on its way to history. Therefore I now always buy HDDs with the SATA interface. Then I am pretty confident that I can move my harddisks to a new computer when I have to retire my present one in a few years time.

 

My recommendation: Use large SATA HDDs as master storage.  

 

PS. A "Peace " of summer 2005. Not any rose by other name would smell as sweet.