[Thinkpad] Flash (SD) as backup?

[Stuart F. Biggar]

At 03:30 PM 4/16/2007, you wrote:
>This company is run by two people. Anyway, what about heat tolerance? Which
>will hold data longer if left in the sun, or in a fire safe during a fire?
>I'll talk to them about offsite backups next time I'm there.

Alex,

I have no idea about flash and temperature problems but some
flash card vendors (CF format) have types with wider than normal
temperature range (SanDisk Extreme IV: -25 to 85 C).  That said,
temperatures in cars in hot, sunny locations like Arizona where
I live can get to above 85 C (closed car in mid-day summer sun).

In a similar vein, CD-R and DVD-R (and the various other recordable
and rewritable media) also have temperature problems.  We have had
CD-R disks go bad with one car exposure to a hot sunny day in Arizona.
Note that those were cheap disks - there is a significant variation
in quality of media.  Archival quality media is expensive (a dollar
a disk for CD-R with gold reflector) and it needs to be treated right
(temperature control and humidity control if possible if you want
long term stability).  See an interesting NIST special publication
(500-252) for some suggestions:

http://www.foray.com/CDandDVDCareandHandlingGuide.pdf

Stuart

>On 4/16/07, Rob <rct-sub at r-t.org> wrote:
> >
> > CD-R or DVD-R (or +Rs) will give you immutable archival backups
> > which is what I expect is the minimum most companies would
> > want for copies of financial data.  (Don't forget that off-site copy.)
> >
> > Hope This Helps,
> > --Rob
> >
> > Alex Austin wrote:
> > > I've only had issues with Memorex USB flash drives before , and if I
> > recall,
> > > the ZIP100 disks weren't that great either.
> > >
> > > BTW, This is a desktop that I'm building to be cheap, and I will include
> > a
> > > DVD burner - flash is just easier.
> > >
> > > On 4/16/07, STeve Andre' <andres at msu.edu> wrote:
> > >> On Monday 16 April 2007 15:43:27 Alex Austin wrote:
> > >>> I have some clients who have one machine dedicated to the company
> > >>> financials. From a reliability standpoint, would it make sense to
> > offer
> > >>> flash as a backup solution? They previously used ZIP100.
> > >> Ugh.  The idea of using solid-state memory for backup purposes
> > >> makes me queasy.
> > >>
> > >> Why not get them a CD drive in a USB case and let them back up
> > >> to that?  Even if the laptop has a USB 1 port, you'd be making
> > >> backups to a safer kind of media.
> > >>
> > >> --STeve Andre'
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
>--
>- Alex Austin
>Circuitsoft Computer Services
>(651) 238-9273
>www.circuitsoftcs.com
>
>"...and then I visited Wikipedia ...and the next 8 hours are a blur."
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