Search the Community

I am looking for a better way to archive media files in storage. In the past, I used to burn backups to DVDs. With the larger media files of today, I have been saving files to 2 HDD's and placing them in the closet. But I read that HDDs degrade over time and can die in 4-6 years even in storage without being used. Is there a way to use DrivePool to create backup storage media that I could periodically reattach to my computer system and check for data integrity, and maybe catch and replace a failing drive before the files are lost? My current idea is to take the old backup HDDs out of storage maybe every 2 years, transfer the files to DrivePool, and then copy back the files to 2 new HDDs (with DrivePool for those 2 HDDs using duplication). I would put the new backup HDDs back into storage and use the older HDDs in my current DrivePool (using duplication) so if an older HDD starts to fail, DrivePool would flag it and remove it for me. Essentially, it would be a planned HDD replacement system as I don't trust HDDs of today for long term backup storage. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, however, and if there is a better way to backup my media files for long term storage I would like to know how to do it even if I don't end up using DrivePool. Thanks in advance for any feedback.