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regarding resistance to data corruption over the years which of the two technologies is currently more reliable? so I'm not interested in reliability in daily use but the ability to maintain data over time without power.

Franz
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3 Answers3

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SSD's may be slightly better than spinning rust but I would not count on either for reliable storage for more than 3-5 years. Mag tape is the conservative answer but you will then need to keep compatible tape hardware around for that long. Archival-grade optical discs are the best bet but again you need to have hardware that is compatible with your system for the next 20 years. Do you have any EISA slots in your system to read archives made in 1990?

Best bet is to choose something current and convenient and then copy the data to another current and convenient media five years from now.

doneal24
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Any consumer storage gear is not made to survive intact for many years.

The best approach (in my experience) is two operating computers, one of which is the backup of the other. Use very large drives.

Use a Sync App (I use Sync Back Pro) to ensure the integrity of the backed up files.

Within the framework above, top grade SSDs will outlast the computers.

Two computers may provide other uses for you as well. This is what I do and have done for about two decades or even more.

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interested in reliability ... to maintain data over time without power.

Then for certain the answer will not be SSD if the requirement is to retain data without power. I have the feeling the other answers seem to overlook this requirement.

Modern SSD's specially suffer from a phenomena called retention loss. To (allow the firmware to) effectively counter this effect a SSD needs to receive power.

The degree of retention loss is determined by several factors such as type of NAND (SLC, MLC etc..), wear already sustained (more wear, retention gets worse) and even temperature at the time the NAND is 'programmed'. And so articles that present figures for retention like 1 year or 2 years are basically useless.

References:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.05140

https://selinc.com/api/download/106514/