So, a man came from a distant exotic country, where he spent his only vacation of the year with pleasure. The trip was full of various adventures and excursions. Many valuable and unique photographs were taken as a memory.
Upon arrival, the question immediately arose: Where to store photos safely so that the memory of the trip remains for many years?
Consider the standard storage locations for personal information, which are text files and personal photos.
Options for storing the main album and for creating backup copies of photos
1. Leave photos on the camera's memory card
Since the main types of memory for cameras are now relatively inexpensive, the card can be removed from the device and put in a secluded corner, thus saving the photo. You can buy new memory for later shooting. Thus, over time, a kind of archive-corner will be formed with many flash cards of a certain format. It must be remembered that faster memory cards for cameras are not cheap. For comfortable recording of video on the “mirror”, without freezes, you need a high-quality expensive card.
Advantages.
No need to waste time saving and transferring files to other media. It is only desirable to create a duplicate archive for the most reliable storage.
Disadvantages.
The first and most important disadvantage: buying memory every time, one way or another, will lead to additional costs.
Secondly, memory cards sometimes become unreadable due to the use of various adapters and other devices. In any case, you need to find a place to store the backup archive.
2. Burn photos to DVD disc
Nice try;), but this method has limitations and very significant: the size of the space for burning a single-sided single-layer DVD is 4.7 GB. If the size of your camera's flash memory is much larger, this method is clearly not suitable as a backup location. At the same time, it should be taken into account that the speed of writing to DVD is rather low, if suddenly someone decides to burn 30-40 GB of information on several discs in a row. You will have to sit near the computer all day.
Advantages.
Disadvantages.
Low write speed. Suitable for storing only part of the information. And since graphics take up a lot of memory, this technique is hardly the best for our purposes.
3. Recording and storing photos on an external USB drive
Large volume and high speed recording, what could be better. Indeed, this method can be called one of the best options. The files are stored on the hard drive of an external USB drive. At any time they can be copied from the camera, transferred to any place, connected to a computer and viewed. Here are just hard drives, especially with frequent use, they can fail, thereby losing the information that was recorded on them. and from a damaged USB drive, only the cost of recovery can completely discourage the desire to do this. External USB drives fail more often than the HDD of a computer or laptop due to constant movement, which can become a source of dynamic overload leading to premature failure.
Advantages.
Fast write speed, portability, large storage capacity. Relatively cheap storage space given the cost per gigabyte (1 GB) of information.
Disadvantages.
The low reliability of this data store. Those. the case when the advantage, in this case, the mobility of the device, becomes a disadvantage, as it worsens the reliability indicator.
4. Storage on the hard drive of a desktop computer or laptop
Computer HDDs are fast and capacious devices, but, as noted earlier, quite often they suddenly fail. Moreover, suddenness is characteristic in the full sense of the word - today you turn off the PC and everything is fine, but tomorrow it turns out that the computer's hard drive is out of order and information can be restored only with the help of special equipment for a lot of money.
In addition, to increase the reliability of data storage, it is better to do this on a stationary PC - there, hard drives, as a rule, work longer. There is a chance that the files can be safely stored for a long time. You can then successfully copy, thereby making a backup, in another location.
Therefore, if you plan to use the HDD of a computer or laptop for an archive, take care of a backup copy. For copies, you can choose any of the methods discussed in this article.
Advantages.
No additional costs and time wasted downloading and storing files and data - quickly copied and forgotten.
Disadvantages.
Low reliability of data storage.
There is a high probability of accidentally formatting a partition with a data archive with an independent, non-professional one.
5. Using cloud storage
Cloud storage is one of the most convenient and reliable ways to store data. I'll explain why.
The convenience of storing photos in this way is that by uploading files to the cloud, you can use them from anywhere. I came to friends or relatives without any drive, empty-handed, immediately opened their computer and showed all the saved photos. Conveniently? Very.
Reliability is ensured by the continuous operation of WEB servers, their constant duplication in RAID, and besides, I would like to believe that all this electronics operating in data centers is under the tireless supervision of professional system administrators.
Speed is not the strongest quality of cloud storage, but the quality of the Internet is constantly growing, and the price is falling. Therefore, everything is fine.
The capacity available for one user without any surcharges ranges from 15 GB Google Disk to 100 GB Mail.ru cloud. And these are the most famous services that offer unlimited free disks (there are such Chinese storages).
Advantages.
Free use.
High mobility due to access from anywhere in the world.
High reliability.
Disadvantages.
Possible breach of confidentiality.
The speed of working with the storage depends on the speed of the Internet.
6. USB stick or USB flash drive
Surely, for many it was this method of data storage that came to mind first, in the article this method is in last place not because it is the worst or the best - the logic is different. I wanted to intrigue and encourage the reader to read the article to the end :) Sorry.
This method of data storage is quite promising, inexpensive and relatively reliable. It is promising and inexpensive due to the already low price, and, in dynamics, it is constantly decreasing with a growing volume. So, today (end of 2014), on aliexpress.com you can buy a 64 GB flash drive for less than $10. It must be remembered that the higher the price, the better, as a rule, the memory and the higher the write-read speed. Reliability is determined by the conditions of use and the quality of the memory manufacturing process - this is a floating indicator.
Thus, you can write files (create a duplicate archive) and put them in storage. Flash drives, as you know, are not sensitive to shocks, drops, temperature changes, easily turn into a keychain and can be constantly with you. The only thing that needs to be mentioned is that if you insert a USB flash drive into a computer with a damaged or incorrectly connected USB connector, the USB flash drive controller may fail.
Advantages.
Low price with a large amount of memory for data storage.
Relatively high reliability.
Mobility.
Disadvantages.
It's easy to mess up.
Often there are defective copies.
There are enough places where you can store data, although not so much - these are DVDs, flash drives, hard drives. The reliability of file storage has always been of paramount importance. Today, there are many ways to protect yourself from the loss of information acquired over years of overwork. Where is the best place to store files so that they can be restored in the frequent event of a storage device failure? Let's figure it out.
Some of the files are not very small. For example, a lover of high-quality photographs collects an archive. In this case, the required amount of disk space is very critical, because each snapshot is 15-60 MB. The value of each photo for the collector is undeniable, not to mention all the other important information.
Where is the best place to store files is a problem for which several solutions can be proposed. If we take as a basis the industrial methods of preservation used in organizations such as financial institutions, then the scheme is something like this.
Information storage standards
Third, we copy the space to Mail.ru Cloude.
Fourth - although three is enough, you can put the files to the Chinese.
Now, in the event of an accident on your computer, it is possible to recover, spending only time. Information will not be lost.
Several friends and acquaintances have recently been asking the same question - Where to store the accumulated files?
It is unsafe on the computer, because at any moment the hard disk may fail or some virus like Penetrator will destroy all documents, photos, movies, music, etc.
Previously, I, like smart books, advised that all documents be copied from time to time to a CD or DVD disc and stored "in a cool dry place."
But, for several times now, there have been cases when a disc stored in a closet for some reason refused to be read. Thank God, there was nothing of particular value there.
It usually saves that I make multiple copies. On a flash drive, on a portable USB drive and somewhere else on a hard drive. But the information accumulates in such quantities that there are not enough flash drives.
Let's try to answer a few questions:
What to store?
- how to store?
- where to store?
What to store.
It is impossible and unnecessary to store everything. If you have downloaded some music, movies, etc. from the Internet, it is not necessary to store all this for years. Want - rewrite on pigs. Even if the blank is no longer readable, you can always download everything from the Internet again.
There are irreplaceable things: photographs of relatives and friends, written poems, dissertations and other documents. Those. what is created by you. If your works are lost, no one but you will restore them.
My friends had a case when the computer broke down just before the defense of the dissertation. It's good that they managed to print it and managed to scan it. But it took a lot of sweat. Another friend in a small factory was robbed of a computer on which they stored the programs they created for CNC machines. The backup was stored on a nearby computer, but that was also stolen. They bought new computers, but the work of several years was gone.
How to store
To make backups more convenient, it is best to store all documents or photos in separate folders in the root partition of the disk. For example: c:\Documents, c:\Photo.
Many create a document folder on the Windows Desktop. This is not very good, because this folder is tied to a specific user account, located somewhere deep in subfolders C:\Documents and Settings \Vasya\Desktop\.... In case of accidental deletion of a folder or documents, it is easier to restore files from a folder located at the root of the disk.
If the hard drive is divided into several partitions (C:\, D:\), then it is better to store the backup on the second partition. If the virus damages the operating system, then when you reinstall it, you may need to format the system disk and all files on the C:\ drive will be destroyed.
Usually I make a D:\Backup folder on the D:\ drive and copy the archive with copies of documents there.
If your especially valuable documents and photos are stored in several separate folders, then you can make a batch file for archiving all documents and photos, put the icon for this file on the Desktop and issue an archiving command from time to time. Or set up the system for automatic archiving, for example, once a week.
Where to store
Flash drives
Now there is an opportunity not very expensive to buy a large flash drive or a portable USB drive. For example, a 16 GB flash drive costs about 1,000 rubles, and a 500 GB USB drive costs a little more than 2,000 rubles. Prices can be checked at the nearest computer store or on the Nix.ru website (http://www.nix.ru/price/price.html).
It is not difficult to transfer an archive with documents to a USB flash drive or USB disk. We will not describe this procedure.
Please note that when connecting to an infected computer, information from a flash drive orUSB drive can be destroyed.
blanks
More reliable, but less user-friendly is the storage of archives on CD or DVD discs. To burn the archive, you will have to install a special program for burning discs (Nero, ...).
You can choose one of the programs here: http://download.chip.eu/ru/Burning-Softw are_7685.html .
If you have Windows 7 installed on your computer, older versions of Nero will not work.
I recommend the program CDBurnerXP http://download.chip.eu/ru/CDBurnerXP-Pr o_95440.html
The advantage of this method of storing files is that it is almost impossible for viruses to corrupt the information on the disc even if you insert it into the computer's drive.
For reliability, especially valuable archives can be stored on several discs.
One non-rewritable disc DVD costs about 20 rubles, rewritable - 30-30 rubles.
But rewritable discs are also not eternal. . At me after 5-6 rewritings they cease to be read. Sometimes it's easier to buy a cheaper non-rewritable disc, burn the archive and put it away for storage.
Internet
Recently, the Internet has become high-speed and affordable, and access to it is available in almost every home.
Internet services began to develop, which allow you to store your documents and photos somewhere on the server.
The most common and well-known is the site services Google. It allows you to store photos in Picasa Web Albums and documents in Google Docs. I will try to write more about these services next time.
Picasa albums can be made public or private. For your convenience, the site has , which will make it easier for you to upload a large number of photos to the Picasa web album.
2. install client software
After that, a folder will appear on your computer. C:\Documents and Settings\Vasya\My Documents\My Dropbox where you just need to copy your archive or file.
In a few minutes (depending on the size of the archive or document), a copy of the document will be on the Internet on your personal resource. You can access your file at any time from any computer and even from a smartphone.
If you copy a file or document to the "Public" subfolder, you can share the file with your friends or place a link to your file on LiveJournal or on the website. To do this, you need to right-click on the file, the link to which you want to share with friends, and click on the "Copy public link" menu item. A link will be copied to the clipboard, which you can already send by letter or blog. For example: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16346789/drop2.jpg
Thus, you always have a free "virtual flash drive" on the Internet with a size of at least 2 Gigabytes. For your basic documents is enough.
If you have Internet access at work and the DropBox client is installed, then in order to continue working with a document at home, there is no need to copy the file to a USB flash drive and take it home. You can simply save the document in the DropBox folder and open it at home from the same folder.
As in Windows, files deleted in the DropBox folder are deleted to the trash and can be restored, if necessary.
For more information on how to install and use DropBox, see this video:
UPD : Sync photos from Dropbox on Android
You may also be interested
23.05.2018
A reliable way to store data. Best External Hard Drives for Reliable Storage
With the advent of computers, the issue of storing information, which was originally supplied in digital form, became very acute. And now this problem is very relevant, because you want to save the same photos or videos for a long memory. That is why you will initially have to find the answer to the question of what devices and media serve for long-term storage of information. You should also fully appreciate all their advantages and disadvantages.
The concept of information and methods of its storage
There are several basic types of information data that can be found on computers today. The most common forms are text, graphics, audio, video, mathematical and other formats.
In the simplest version, information is stored on the hard drives of computers on which the user saves the file initially. But this is only one side of the coin, because in order to view (extract) this information, you need at least an operating system and appropriate programs, which, by and large, also represent information data.
It is interesting that in schools in computer science lessons, when choosing the correct answer to such questions, one often encounters the statement that, they say, RAM is used for long-term storage of information. And schoolchildren who are not familiar with the specifics and principles of its work consider this the right answer.
Unfortunately, they are wrong, because RAM only stores information about currently running processes, and when they are terminated or the system is rebooted, RAM is completely cleared. This is similar to the once-popular children's drawing toys, when you could first draw something on the screen and then shake the toy and the drawing would disappear, or when the teacher erased the text written in chalk from the blackboard.
How information was stored in the past
The very first method of storing information in the form of rock paintings (by the way, graphics) has been known since time immemorial.
Much later, with the advent of speech, the preservation of information began to be a process, so to speak, of transmission from mouth to mouth (myths, legends, epics). Writing led to the fact that books began to appear. Do not forget the paintings or drawings. With the advent of photography, sound and video recording technologies, corresponding media appeared on the information field. But all this turned out to be short-lived.
Device for long-term storage of information: basic requirements
Archival storage. In this case, important information is supposed to be stored for a long time while providing quick access to it, which dictates quite specific requirements for storage technologies and equipment, in particular, long-term storage of large amounts of information unchanged. All these conditions are met by robotic optical disc libraries.
It should be noted that in most European countries and the United States, the need for archival storage of business-key information is enshrined at the legislative level. About 25,000 directives have been adopted around the world, including decrees of governments and individual ministries in Germany, Italy, the United States, Great Britain and other countries requiring the preservation of data on financial transactions, exchange transactions, medical research and insurance payments for five to ten years .
Legislative standards for data storage are being actively developed in our country. The planned accession of Russia to the WTO is a powerful catalyst for this process. In the near future, many companies will be required by law to store data for an extended period, so they will have to upgrade their storage systems. Therefore, the global growth rate of the archival storage market in Russia will most likely be significantly exceeded.
FEATURES OF ARCHIVE STORAGE
The first and most important requirement for an electronic archive is the exclusion of the physical possibility of deleting or changing data both through negligence and malicious intent. In other words, the information carrier must provide a one-time write with multiple reading (True Write Once Read Many, True WORM). As a result, the protection of data from deletion should not be software, but hardware. In addition, storage durability and high media capacity are key requirements. This can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the system and meet the storage requirements of the largest companies, including government and industrial enterprises.
It follows from these conditions that neither RAID arrays nor tape drives can cope with the task of archival data storage. Despite this, in Russia the bulk of information resources are stored on hard drives or RAID arrays. Hard drives are trusted even with information that requires long-term and reliable storage. Meanwhile, the very principle of operation of a hard drive implies constant mechanical movement, which implies device failures and periodic loss of information. Manufacturers do not give guarantees for the performance of a hard drive for decades. Trusting the most valuable data to RAID arrays, users sometimes do not pay attention to the fact that RAID technology was created to make up for the unreliability and fragility of the hard drive.
Similar questions arise when trying to build an archive data warehouse based on tape drives: the fragility of the media forces you to periodically transfer data from the old tape to the new one. In addition, the tape needs maintenance - if it is not in use, it must be rewound regularly to prevent degaussing. This technology has other disadvantages, in particular, direct access to an arbitrary file on the tape is impossible.
To solve the problem of archival data storage, a new class of specialized devices was developed - archive drives. These robotic optical disc libraries, controlled by specific software, build a robust storage system to support automatic information lifecycle management.
HARD DRIVE FAILURE STATISTICS
Google Inc. conducted an independent analysis of hard drive failure statistics. The accumulated database (more than 100,000 HDD copies) is many times larger than any other similar study that has been published.
The results clearly demonstrate the inefficiency of using hard drives in long-term archive storage systems: the cumulative percentage of hard drive failures reaches 25% by the end of the fourth year of operation (see Figure 1). As a result, hard disk-based systems must be redundant, support a migration and backup infrastructure, and be subject to frequent maintenance. This explains the high total cost of ownership for hard drive-based archives.
For building large information storage systems, it is essential that in a multi-disk array (more than 10 hard drives) continued operation without maintenance becomes unlikely even after a few years after the start of operation (see Tables 1 and 2), and more than half of the failures cannot be predicted from using state-of-the-art embedded failure prediction technologies (SMART).
Even with constant maintenance, backup and replacement of disks in the system, users should be aware that, according to statistics, more than a third of all HDDs fail in the fifth year of operation. Given obsolescence, this leads to significant difficulties in ensuring timely replacement. Thus, in order to reduce the risk of data loss, it becomes most expedient to completely replace drives after three to four years of operation, which entails additional costs.
RELIABILITY OF INFORMATION STORAGE ON OPTICAL DRIVES
According to the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), of all existing technologies, robotic optical disc drives (DVD/BD libraries) are the best for long-term data storage, using which the total cost of information storage is much lower than in the case of alternative technologies.
The immutability of data stored on optical media is guaranteed at the physical level, since the writing process is an irreversible change in the structure of the disk as a result of crystallization of the amorphous layer, which corresponds to the True WORM write-once standard. The stored data cannot be erased or modified - it is read-only.
The most common type of optical media used for modern archive drives are DVD discs. DVD manufacturers produce discs with a special hard coating, which guarantees the safety of information and fully complies with the international ECMA standard, while the service life of the media exceeds 30 years.
Thus, optical technologies provide the following advantages:
They guarantee exceptionally reliable data storage for decades;
The True WORM specification is supported at the physical level, since during the recording process an irreversible change in the state of matter occurs;
The capacity of one carrier is already 50 GB. This allows you to create data warehouses of significant volume and increase them if necessary;
Blu-ray Disk technology provides random access to data, and the positioning speed of the laser head on the disc is the same as that of hard drives.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
To confirm the service life of discs, their samples are tested using the artificial aging method. The discs will meet the standard if 95% of the samples have a predicted shelf life of more than 30 years.
During the tests, indicators of errors in reading disks are determined. If the corresponding critical levels are exceeded, then read errors become unrecoverable and the sample becomes unusable, after which the time to failure is calculated. Based on the results obtained, the expiration time under normal conditions is determined.
During testing, the disks are placed in a special chamber with an elevated temperature, while diffusion processes in the carrier are activated, which imitates the natural aging of the material. In addition, the discs are tested in conditions of high humidity, aggressive environments, the influence of microorganisms and dust, and mechanical stress.
First, the health of the disk is measured at high temperature. In each subsequent experiment, the temperature is lowered by 50C and brought up to 600C. With each step, the life of the disk increases. Data for room temperature are approximated based on the shape of the resulting performance curve. So, for a polycarbonate substrate, the shelf life of discs at room temperature reaches 133 years.
The special hard coating provides long-term preservation of the information recorded on the DVD due to the best protection against scratches. This is confirmed by tests on the HEIDON-14 tester: scratches are applied with a steel ball with a diameter of 7 mm with a non-woven backing at a speed of 1000 mm/min (see Figure 2). In addition, the anti-static component of the coating quickly removes static electricity from the surface of the disc and prevents dust from adhering during use and storage (relevant tests were carried out in a dusty chamber for 24 hours). The oil-repellent surface reduces the risk of data loss if someone accidentally touches the surface of the drive and makes it easier to erase fingerprints (see Figure 3). Hard Coated DVD fully complies with all performance standards and remains highly stable when tested at elevated temperature and humidity (temperature 80°C, relative humidity 90%).
Tests conducted by ECMA International confirm that robotic libraries based on certified hard-coated DVD discs provide reliable archival data storage for 30 years and fully meet archival storage standards.
IMPROVING STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES
The problem of archival storage becomes more and more urgent as the volume of stored data grows exponentially. On a global scale, the amount of archival information is growing much faster than all other information. At the same time, fast access is required only to 20-30% of the information. By 2010, its total volume will reach one zettabyte, i.e. 1021 bytes.
Currently, DVDs can store 9.4 GB on a single medium, while Blu-ray-based drives can store up to 50 GB on a single BD. In the coming years, it is planned to increase the capacity of mass-produced optical discs to 100 GB, and in the future to 200 GB (see Figure 4). This will make optical technology even more accessible.
Continuity of technology is important: modern optical drives support CDs released by
25 years ago. In the future, the form factor of optical discs will not change, which allows us to count on the compatibility of optical discs with drives of the future.
BLU-RAY TECHNOLOGY
Modern Blu-ray optical technology provides high-density archiving on media with a capacity of 25 or 50 GB each, with a capacity of 100 or even 200 GB achievable in the future. Single-sided media can have one or more recording layers of 25 GB each, support write-once (BD-R) and re-write (BD-RE), and provide highly efficient sector-by-sector error correction. The Blu-ray Disc is 120mm in diameter and has a hard surface.
Blu-ray drives are read/write compatible with CD/DVD media. The technology is supported by all major manufacturers of drives and media, as well as the UDF file system. Modern Blu-ray drives provide 2x write speed (72 Mbps) and 5x read speed (for single layer media).
USE OF BACKUP DRIVES
Archive drives are used in the infrastructure of an enterprise information system when long-term, reliable data storage is needed (see Figure 5). The control software automatically migrates data from the network or from the server according to predefined rules. It is estimated that approximately 80% of the data stored on Tier 1 media does not require frequent access, and 20% of it will never be needed. It makes sense to store such data on optical archive drives, thereby freeing up expensive disk space in a RAID array.
When choosing an archival storage system, DVD and BD optical technologies should be preferred. Only they provide fulfillment of all storage requirements, including such parameters as high reliability and long-term storage, authenticity and immutability of data, fast random access to data, high storage capacity, expandability. Optical technologies have been proven over decades and thousands of installations around the world.
Igor Korepanov - Marketing Director of the company "Electronic Archive". He can be contacted at the addresses: and http://www.elar.ru.
“Whoever owns information owns the world,” said the great Chinese philosopher Confucius 3,000 years ago. But the incoming information had to be stored somewhere, summarized, found at the right time and used in time. From the beginning it was rock slabs and walls where ancient people painted, then it was clay boards, birch bark, papyrus, paper, vinyl discs, magnetic tape, punched cards, floppy disks, disks and finally, a hard drive.
But when the hard drive is located in the system unit, it is always exposed to various types of danger that can lead to the loss of recorded information. And this is due to voltage drops and overheating. And the nature of the information itself can be such that it is not always needed in real time, but it is still relevant for the owner. A catalog of family photos, favorite music, and also movies, which, of course, are downloaded from a free torrent. It is advantageous to store such information not in a hard drive, but on an external hard drive. And you can carry it with you, and always at hand, and there is less danger of losing information.
I was planning a business trip to one of the southern republics of Russia for a period of 1 year. Naturally, I went to buy an external hard drive to upload photos of family, friends, favorite rock band concerts, and of course movies, lots of movies! The main criteria were a capacity of 1 TB, the transfer speed was appropriate, and, well, durability. As a result of consultations with the manager in the store, I chose the Western Digital WDBBJH0010BBK HDD.
During the operation of this device, its advantages became clear: it corresponds to the declared speed. USB 3.0-2.0 support: works great with any standards. Design: not huge, with rounded edges, the top and bottom surface does not leave fingerprints. Noise: for me it is quiet. Vibration: Moderate (not too much for me), rubber pegs on the bottom reduce vibration by 80%. Omnivorous: the telly accepted the disc without problems, the computer also accepted it without problems.
However, in the future, seemingly insignificant, but still significant shortcomings began to appear. And the main thing is the presence of its own power cord. Just imagine, each of you at your workplace at home or in the office has a surge protector connected to: a monitor, a system unit, active speakers, a printer, a modem, a router, and some other very necessary and required power crap. And there is no space for my external drive. At the same time, another nearest outlet is 5 meters away in the opposite wall. We connected, we work, and the cord hangs halfway through the room - we stumble! Further, during the operation of the device, noise began to be heard, vibration appeared. Of course, when the TV is on in the room, there are people, you don’t pay attention to it, but if you are left alone, all these sounds begin to annoy you in a childish way! Yes, and the size of the disk began to cause bewilderment - after all, it is large. You can’t put it on an LCD monitor, but it gets in the way on the desktop, the USB cable is short, the power cord is stretched out.
It's no secret that a business trip for a man is an outlet. And a business trip for 1 year is a complete outlet from the beginning, and then strain it. Since we are not saints, we spent our free time from work in a joint viewing of the next new Hollywood masterpiece with the use of alcoholic beverages of various strengths. So, on one of these free days, a cheerful friend touches my external drive with his hand, and the device falls to the floor from a height of 1.5 meters. Although the height was not great, but I was already tense! It seems to be lenolium, it seems to be a small height. I begin with confidence to connect the disk. The computer and the TV set do not see it when connected. Hoping to fix it, I removed the outer casing and, to my great surprise, found inside a standard hard drive, the relatives of which are inserted into the system unit. Why is Western Digital making portable drives out of standard external drives? This is still a secret for me.
Personal attempts to start the disk did not lead to anything. Having handed over the device to their comrades from the “K” department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (they deal with computer crimes) in the hope that they would fix it, the latter also could not restore not only the working capacity of the disk, but even the information on it. It turned out that when it fell, a part of the reading mechanism separated from it and the surface of the disk itself was mechanically damaged. This is how family photos, favorite music and masterpieces of the Hollywood film industry were lost for me. As well as 57 GB of quality porn.
Given the bitter experience of using the previous hard drive and spending little time on the Internet, I chose to purchase an external hard drive 1Tb Western Digital My Passport Essential Silver (WDBEMM0010BSL).
Its advantages: high-capacity external storage with low power consumption; the model automatically turns on and off with the computer, and after a few minutes of inactivity it goes into standby mode, which allows you to use the drive with both desktop computers and laptops. The kit includes an external power supply.
External hard drive 1Tb Western Digital My Passport Essential Silver (WDBEMM0010BSL) has a stylish and ergonomic design, small size and weight, which allows you to carry it in a small bag or pocket. It proved to be a convenient and reliable secondary hard drive. Just plug it into a USB port. With 1 TB of memory, you can store a huge number of files without saving space.
And as you can see, the main differences from the previous hard drive are smaller sizes, higher transfer speeds, the absence of its own power cord, and most importantly, the high reliability of the product during physical impact. This device is fully interfaced with all technical devices, works without failures. But one thing is annoying - it also has a rotating element, and if you drop it, then there is a high probability of losing the stored information.
Thank God that technological progress does not stand still, and therefore external solid-state SSD hard drives are already on sale. These drives are made on silicon, like flash memory. And there is nothing to break, since there are no moving parts. Neither heat, nor water, nor pressure can destroy information. In addition - small size, high speed of information transfer, long shelf life (manufacturers claim that up to 1000 years). The only drawback of these SSD drives is their high cost. But that's for now.
Especially, Samsung has succeeded in the manufacture of SSD drives. External drives such as Samsung MZ-7PD256BW and Samsung MZ-7TE1T0BW
at the end of 2013 and at the beginning of 2014 they occupy a leading position in terms of their characteristics, the main of which are speed, reliability and durability. They will save and store information. With them, you can definitely own the world, as the ancient philosopher Confucius said.
2013-08-26T11:45:39+00:00
Andrey Samkov
What a pity that summer is coming to an end! Surely you have accumulated a whole suitcase of summer impressions - someone had a graduation from school or university, someone spent an amazing vacation on a paradise beach, someone got married, someone had a baby. I would like to keep photographs and videos of such events in their original form for a long time to be reviewed many years later. How to protect your "digital memories" from loss? Let's figure it out.
Computer storage
Obviously, this is the most unreliable way to save data, but, alas, most of us do just that. Laptops look especially dangerous in this sense. Judge for yourself: we carry them with us everywhere, sometimes we connect to a variety of networks, both wired and wireless. So, our laptop is always in the "risk zone".
We can break it, they can steal it from us, how sad it is to think about it. And “disorderly network connections” lead to the fact that our portable computer is constantly under the threat of being infected with viruses, trojans and other computer infections (and a reliable antivirus, unfortunately, is not a 100% guarantee, because the fight between virus writers and virus fighters goes on continuously with variable success).
And there’s nothing at all, if to problems with a computer that has ceased to function, we would still have problems with the loss of valuable information.
Optical discs
External drives should not be kept permanently connected to the computer: it is no secret that even the best of computers fail from time to time. It is especially dangerous when the failure is related to the power supply or power system, in this case, the damaged component threatens to "take with it to the grave" everything that is connected to the computer, including your precious electronic archive.
At the same time, it’s not worth hiding the hard drive in a closet for years: the fact is that information is stored on it in the form of magnetized areas, and this magnetization can (and will) be lost over time, in other words, the disk will demagnetize, and the data, respectively , get lost. So once every few months, the hard drive should still be connected to the computer so that it restores the magnetization of its “pancakes”.
Memory device - a storage medium intended for recording and storing data. The operation of a storage device can be based on any physical effect that brings the system to two or more stable states.
Storage devices are divided into 2 types:
external (peripheral) devices
internal devices
TO external devices include magnetic disks, CDs, DVDs, BDs, streamers, hard disks (hard drives), and flash cards. External memory is cheaper than internal memory, which is usually created on the basis of semiconductors. In addition, most external storage devices can be transferred from one computer to another. Their main drawback is that they are slower than internal memory devices.
TO internal devices include RAM, cache, CMOS, BIOS. The main advantage is the speed of information processing. But at the same time, internal memory devices are quite expensive.
floppy disk drive (floppy disk drive)
The use of floppy disks is a thing of the past. There are two types and provide storage of information on diskettes of one of two formats: 5.25 "or 3.5". 5.25" floppy disks are practically non-existent nowadays (maximum capacity is 1.2 Mb). For 3.5" floppy disks, the maximum capacity is 2.88 Mb, the most common capacity format for them is 1.44 Mb. Flexible magnetic disks are placed in a plastic case. In the center of the floppy disk there is a device for gripping and rotating the disk inside the plastic case. A floppy disk is inserted into a disk drive that rotates at a constant angular speed. All diskettes are formatted before use - service information is applied to them, both surfaces of the diskette are divided into concentric circles - tracks, which in turn are divided into sectors. Sectors of the same name on both surfaces form clusters. The magnetic heads are adjacent to both surfaces and, as the disk rotates, they pass by all track clusters. Moving heads along the radius using a stepper motor provides access to each track. Writing/reading is performed by an integer number of clusters, usually under the control of the operating system. However, in special cases, it is possible to organize writing / reading bypassing the operating system, using the BIOS functions directly. In order to preserve information, floppy magnetic disks must be protected from exposure to strong magnetic fields and heating, since such exposure can lead to demagnetization of the media and loss of information.
HDD (hard disk drive)
The hard disk drive is one of the most advanced and complex devices in a modern PC. Its disks are capable of holding many megabytes of information transferred at an enormous speed. The basic principles of a hard disk have changed little since its inception. Looking at a hard disk drive, you will see only a solid metal case. It is completely sealed and protects the drive from dust particles. In addition, the case shields the drive from electromagnetic interference.
The disk is a round plate with a very flat surface, often made of aluminum, less often made of
ceramics or glass coated with a thin ferromagnetic layer. Magnetic heads read and write information to discs. Digital information is converted into an alternating electric current supplied to the magnetic head, and then transferred to the magnetic disk, but in the form of a magnetic field that the disk can perceive and "remember". Under the influence of an external magnetic field, the own magnetic fields of the domains are oriented in accordance with its direction. After the termination of the action of the external field, zones of residual magnetization are formed on the surface of the disk. In this way, the information written to the disc is preserved. Areas of residual magnetization, when the disc rotates opposite the gap of the magnetic head, induce an electromotive force in it, which varies depending on the magnitude of the magnetization. The disc pack, mounted on a spindle axle, is driven by a special motor compactly located underneath. The rotation speed of the discs is typically 7200 rpm. In order to reduce the time it takes for the drive to enter the operating state, the engine operates in the forced mode for some time when it is turned on. Therefore, the computer power supply must have a margin for peak power. The advent of Giant Magnetic Resistance (GMR) heads invented by IBM in 1999 led to an increase in recording density to 6.4 GB per platter in products already on the market.
The main parameters of the hard disk:
Capacity - the hard drive has a capacity of 40 GB to 200 GB.
Data reading speed. The average today's figure is about 8 MB / s.
Average access time. It is measured in milliseconds and indicates the time it takes the disk to access any area you select. The average is 9 ms.
Disk rotation speed. An indicator that is directly related to the speed of access and the speed of reading data. The speed of rotation of the hard disk mainly affects the reduction of the average access (search) time. The improvement in overall performance is especially noticeable when fetching a large number of files.
The size of the cache memory is a small, fast buffer memory in which the computer stores the most frequently accessed data. The hard drive has its own cache memory up to 8 MB.
Company manufacturer. Only the largest manufacturers can master modern technologies, because the organization of the manufacture of the most complex heads, plates, controllers requires large financial and intellectual costs. Hard drives are currently manufactured by seven companies: Fujitsu, IBM-Hitachi, Maxtor, Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. Moreover, each model of one manufacturer has its own, only inherent features.
streamers
The classic way to back up is to use streamers - devices
tape recordings. However, the capabilities of this technology, both in terms of capacity and speed, are severely limited by the physical properties of the media. A streamer is very similar to a cassette recorder. Data is written to a magnetic tape that is pulled past the heads. The disadvantage of a tape drive is that it takes a long time to sequentially access data when reading. The capacity of the streamer reaches several GB, which is less than the capacity of modern hard drives, and the access time is many times longer.
Flash card
Devices made on a single chip (chip) and having no moving parts are based on electrically reprogrammable flash memory chips. The physical principle of organizing flash memory cells can be considered the same for all manufactured devices, no matter how they are called. Such devices differ in interface and controller used, which causes a difference in capacity, data transfer rate and power consumption.
Multimedia Card (MMC) and Secure Digital (SD)– leaves the scene due to limited capacity (64 MB and 256 MB, respectively) and low speed.
smart media- the main format for cards of wide application (from bank and metro travel cards to identity cards). Thin plates weighing 2 grams have open contacts, but a significant capacity for such dimensions (up to 128 MB) and a data transfer rate (up to 600 Kb / s) led to their penetration into the field of digital photography and wearable MP3 devices.
memory stick- "exclusive" format by Sony, almost never used by other companies. The maximum capacity is 256 MB, the data transfer speed reaches 410 Kb / s, the prices are relatively high.
Compact Flash (CF)- the most common, versatile and promising format. Easily connects to any laptop. The main area of application is digital photography. In terms of capacity (up to 3 GB), today's CF cards are not inferior to IBM Microdrive, but they lag behind in data transfer speed (about 2 MB / s).
USB flash drive- USB serial interface with a bandwidth of 12 Mbps or its modern version USB 2.0 with a bandwidth of up to 480 Mbps. The carrier itself is enclosed in a streamlined compact body, reminiscent of a car keychain. The main parameters (capacity and operating speed) completely coincide with CompactFlash, since the memory chips themselves remain the same. It can serve not only as a "carrier" of files, but also work like a regular drive - you can run applications from it, play music and compressed video, edit and create files. Low average access time to data on Flash disk - less than 2.5 ms. It is likely that USB Flash Drive class drives, especially those with USB 2.0 interface, will be able to completely replace conventional floppy disks and partially rewritable CDs, Iomega ZIP media, and the like.
PC Card (PCMCIA ATA)- the main type of flash memory for compact computers. Currently, there are four formats of PC Cards: Type I, Type II, Type III and CardBus, differing in size, connectors and operating voltage. The PC Card can be backwards compatible in slots from top to bottom. The capacity of the PC Card reaches 4 GB, the speed is 20 Mb/s when exchanging data with the hard disk.
According to your order or a pre-arranged schedule, OSG couriers will deliver your cassettes and hard disks to you for data rewriting, and then return them back. OSG couriers place cassettes and disks in special shockproof cases, the data is protected at all stages.
Each hard drive, magnetic tape, and cassette has a unique barcode that is scanned by OSG employees at every step of the movement: from the moment the cassette is received at your office to the moment it is installed in a cell in magnetic storage. We always know where your media is and easily deliver it for data replication.
Inside the room, a constant temperature of 11°C is maintained - required for the safety of data, all magnetic media are placed in special cells and stored in a vertical state. Media inside the room is protected from direct sunlight and high temperatures. The cassettes inside the room are completely protected from demagnetization and damage.
Protected Backup Media Storage
Storing any information on paper today is not only outdated, but also unreliable. Therefore, both in everyday life and in the organization of a company, various magnetic and optical media are mainly used for storing and transmitting information. Safe storage of hard drives is as important as secure storage of documents. Therefore, if your IT department uses magnetic media for data backup, then you need to store these media in special safe rooms for storing magnetic media outside the office. This means that in the event of a fire, flood or system failure, your data can be fully recovered. Storing hard and magnetic disks and other storage media in a secure OSG storage provides high media protection.
Reliable storage of hard drives from OSG
Couriers in OSG uniforms will pick up your backup disks directly from your office along with the documents being deposited. They will deliver the discs in impact-resistant cases to the Magnetic Storage Center, where the information will be placed in high-security vaults. Storing hard drives outside the office will mean that they are protected from explosions, fires, flooding, magnetic fields, moisture and theft. If you have a problem in your office, OSG will return your disks so that you can restore your data as soon as possible, thereby minimizing the negative consequences.
In addition to storing magnetic media and hard drives, OSG also provides online backup solutions. IT-Archive performs continuous encoding and data transfer to a special OSG server. This solution fits perfectly into your Emergency Response Plan.
How tape and hard drive storage works
2.
Pass the tapes
OSG couriers place your magnetic tapes in special cases for transporting magnetic media. Each cassette is barcoded, OSG employees scan the barcode, and data on transferred media enters the i-Archive. You can track the status of moving your tapes yourself through i-Archive.
3.
Store safely
Your tapes have been moved to OSG storage. Here they are stored in special cells in a vertical state. The vault maintains the recommended temperature, the walls of the vault can withstand the onslaught of fire, the vault arrangement and the air conditioning system protect the tapes from moisture. The data is protected.
Ensuring the safety of archival documents is one of the main areas of work of archivists. From how correctly the strategy for storing documents was chosen, their physical condition and the possibility of using them for a wide variety of purposes depend.
Procedures for ensuring the safety of electronic documents can be conditionally divided into three types:
- -- Ensuring the physical safety of files with electronic documents;
- -- providing conditions for reading information in the long term;
- -- providing conditions for the reproduction of electronic documents in the so-called human-readable form.
The first aspect of ensuring the safety of electronic documents is a practically solved problem, and for all types of storage. This decision is connected not so much with the creation of optimal storage conditions for media with electronic information, but with the physical placement of electronic documents. In order for computer files not to be lost, it is necessary to store them in two or more copies placed on separate electronic media (working and backup or archival media). Then, if one of the media is lost, you can quickly make a duplicate of the files from the rest.
The widespread practice of storing electronic documents shows that their working copies, as a rule, are located on a hard drive or an organization's server, and backup copies (copies) can be created on a backup server or RAID array, streamer (magnetic) tapes, magneto-optical and optical disks (CDs). -RW, DVD-RW). Very few owners of electronic information resources separate the archival part from them and store it exclusively on external media. It's only natural that storage growth has lagged behind hard drive price declines, allowing organizations to grow their server capacity by a wide margin.
It is also important to choose the type of media, its durability. This choice depends on the type of stored electronic documents and their total volume, on the expected period of storage of documents and providing access to them, on the nature of the production of the media themselves and on the expected modes of their storage, on the requirements for ensuring the authenticity of documents. For example, storage of voluminous and complexly structured information resources (integrated databases, geo- and multimedia systems, project and design documentation, original layouts of printed publications) is best done on high-capacity electronic media in order not to violate the integrity of documents.
For storing electronic documents within 5 years, any modern storage media (including magnetic diskettes) are quite reliable. The main thing is to pay attention to the reputation of the manufacturer and the country of origin, which ultimately focuses on the cost of the media, as well as comply with the minimum requirements for their storage modes. As with any product, the rule applies here: cheap is not good. For the same reason, when organizing long-term storage of electronic documents, one should, for example, choose optical discs (“blanks”), the retail price of which will not be lower than 22-25 rubles.
Particular attention should be paid to the choice of media type in case of possible use of electronic documents as written evidence or forensic evidence. If it is unrealistic to give documents legal force with the help of an electronic digital signature (EDS), then they should be copied to CD-R in a timely manner - optical discs with a single record of information.
For long-term storage of electronic documents on external media, the best solution would be to use optical CDs. They are unpretentious in storage and quite reliable for 10-15 years. More is not required. After this period, you will inevitably have to either rewrite files to another type of media (because it will be impossible to read information from a CD), or convert electronic documents to other formats and also rewrite them to modern and capacious media.
Optical discs are considered the most durable media. Some manufacturers determine the shelf life of their products at almost 200 years. How justified this can only be shown by practice, and it is extremely contradictory. On the one hand, there is evidence of the successful use of records on CD for 10-15 years, on the other hand, there are regular reports of failures to read information from these discs. On the other hand, in recent years there have been especially many complaints about access to files recorded on CD-R. Analysts still find it difficult to give an exhaustive explanation of the possible reasons: are the failures in reading files due to the inferiority of the CD-R technology, or some other factors (violations of the technology in the manufacture of "blanks", violations of the conditions and storage mode, technological incompatibility of devices for recording and reading information ).
Creating multiple instances of files does not exhaust the scope of work to ensure their safety. To minimize the cost of maintaining these instances, it is necessary to create optimal conditions for storing storage media. The specifics of storage conditions and mode is largely determined by the type of electronic media. For example, for long-term storage of magnetic media, special equipment is needed to protect them from magnetic and electromagnetic effects of the environment, or to place them away from powerful sources of electromagnetic fields - electric motors, heaters, elevator equipment, etc. Cassettes (coils) with magnetic tapes it is necessary to scroll every 1.5 years to remove static electricity and prevent the so-called copy effect. General points in the storage of any electronic media are placing them in a vertical position, protection from mechanical damage and deformation, pollution and dust, exposure to extreme temperatures and direct sunlight.
