2. digital
  3. 156828-144211

Reliable Digital Music Storage

I am a little broke just now I just purchased a new power amplifier.  As so often when ever I make a hardware investment I read online reviews which mention music selections and simultaneously I end up added 50-100 CDs to my collection. It all adds up.

 

I mirror my music archive on (3) NSAs, (2) PCs and (2) USB hard drives. Plus I have the original CDs which I pray I never have to rip and organize again. I use the program “Beyond Compare” to reliably mirror all the archives. That gives me (8) archives in case anything dies. Today mechanical things died.

 Today one of my WD passport external hard drives started acting up. It is “kind of” working, I can’t trust it any more. I read that all external USB hard drives have an expected life of less than ten years which in terms of long term reliability for my needs sucks.  I like the price of mechanical hard drives; $64 for 2TB.  It can require several hours to copy 1.2Tb of files to an external hard drive. Anytime the Oppo is on the external USB hard drive is spinning, be it working or otherwise, the hour meter of death is running.

 In theory for the cost of a SSD external 2TB USB drive ($250- $350) I can buy five or six mechanical hard drives; just replace them every 2-3 years. Why bother, why take the risk?  I can see replacing my external physical hard drives with external SSD just for the reliability issues. SSD is much faster R/W for bursts however no better than a mechanical hard drive for sustained R/W so I would not expect any actual performance improvement.

 I was on Amazon hunting a 2TB external SSD USb drive and the G technology came highly recommended for $319, the SanDisk is only $300 but is targeted to the mobile market so it is only USB C with an adapter, I don’t trust adapters, they are one more thing to reduce reliability.   Samsung has a T5 model for $319 which may be more reliable than the WD I have now but it isn’t particularly dust, shock or water proof.

 I ended up with the WD My Passport Go SSD for $330 it is dust, shock and water proof, I like the way the USB cable attaches. And Amazon has them in stock unlike the SanDisk.  When I can afford a second 2TB external SSB I’ll get another, I may try something else.


timothywright
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
My Marantz CD 67 (1997) is still going strong! When it becomes wonky I can buy a replacement laser pickup and install it myself! But I still remain an LP fan and collecter! 
timothywright OP
55 posts
 
Does your Marantz CD 67 have any digital storage?  If it has a hard drive from 1997 I suspect I might have some related concerns.  I have a performing artist I like.  I own 17 of his CDs.  Last night I made a directory under his name and copied 400 files of his into a single directory.  28 files of the 400 were duplicates.  That leaves me with 372 of his songs I can play without interruption when I am busy.


Post removed 
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
Mirroring does not give you full protection. Controller fault, virus etc. can wipe all of them. I just keep two unpowered copies of my mechanical drive - one at home and on in the bank vault (in case of theft, fire, flood etc.) Unpowered mechanical drives tend not to fail. Recently I replaced them by SSDs (I use only 1TB, but keep data in ALAC). They don’t last forever, but main problem is not the data retention but limited number of write cycles, that doesn’t play any role here. Even if data on SSD drive stays only 10 years it does not mean, that drive fails in 10 years. Data on such drives is stored as charge that will eventually leak out (faster at higher temperatures), but writing new data starts another 10 years. I update my SSD backup drive every time I add 5-10 CDs and switch them next time I’m at the bank. That way data on them is not older than couple of years. Program I use (Super-Duper) erases drive first and then writes exact copy of main drive. Writing places new charge in memory that is good for another 10 years. I use two (unpowered) backups, because with only one backup I risk error in backup process (like computer failure) that can wipe/damage both drives. I hope it helps.
More to discover