Failing Hard Drives – not music to anyone’s ears!
Anyone who knows me knows that on top of being a huge nerd I’m also a massive music fan. When I’m not working I can usually be found playing music, going to concerts with my wife, or even reading about the various happenings in the music industry. The worlds of music and the world of technology often go hand in hand.
While normally I love the frequent collaborations between tech and tunes, I recently came across an interesting article about one of the not-so-entertaining aspects of these worlds. It seems the music industry is starting learn what many in the tech world already knew – storage media is unfortunately not always 100% reliable.
“Music industry’s 1990s hard drives, like all HDDs, are dying”
The article linked above comes from Ars Technica which has been reporting on the tech world since the late 90s. Unfortunately, for the subjects of this article, many of the hard drives in use by the recording industry have been around for just as long. Many of the drives holding master recordings for some of our favorite artists of the 90s and early 2000s are starting to fail.
The writers at Ars Technica talked to some of the folks at Iron Mountain, an enterprise storage and destruction company in charge of archiving much of the data from this period. What they’re finding is that roughly 1/5 of the hard drives sent to them are completely unreadable.
This is a great article and I encourage anyone who is interested in this stuff to read it for themselves. However, this made me realize one thing that many people surprisingly don’t know…
Storage media is flawed…
It doesn’t matter how technologically advanced or how reliable our storage media claims to be. The sad truth is that anything man made will eventually fail. There’s lots of ways to store data now and there’s pros and cons to all of them. However, while some certainly will last longer than others, there’s only one way to be sure you have access to your data forever. Frequent back-ups.
It’s definitely not the most exciting or fun part of tech, but having a back-up plan has saved many over the years, not just in the music industry. Every business out there storing any kind of data needs a back-up plan. This makes sure that even if you do lose that all important data, there is always a way to get it back. Some companies even go as far as taking multiple back-ups and storing them is separate locations for safety.
Should I back up my data?
Yes. Is it the end of the world if you don’t? Absolutely not. Modern businesses take such extreme steps to back things up because a single breach or loss of data could result in millions of dollars lost depending on the industry. For most of us, the only data we really keep is personal data. Things like our family photos, home videos, or a digital music collection may not cost us anything if lost, but having access to these memories in the future can be priceless.
Personal Back-Up Options
Today we have a wealth of options ranging from cloud storage to external drives. I would wager that many people have their data backing up to the cloud as we speak. Most smartphone users have their data backed up to the cloud whether they know it or not. When setting up your iPhone or Android device, users typically get the option to sign up for iCloud or Google Drive, both of which a fantastic options for most people!
These services usually give you a certain amount of storage for free. After you reach a certain point though, you’ll need to purchase more space or look into other options. There are lots of cloud storage options out there at many different price points, but all of them come with one big caveat. There is no guarantee that you’ll have that data in the future.
In most cases, you would be perfectly fine to trust one of these services. However, you need to make sure it’s with a company you trust. If I put my data into an unknown cloud storage service, there is a small possibility that if that company goes under I’ll lose all of my data and have no way to get it back. This is why I personally opt for the option of the external hard drive. This is typically a USB device with a hard drive (or SSD) inside that allows you to plug into almost any device for storing your data. Then when you’re done you just unplug it and keep it somewhere safe. This is a great option if you’re like me and you want to know exactly where your files are when you need them.
So what do I recommend?
For most people, the standard cloud storage options of Google Drive and iCloud are more than enough. These services are extremely convenient and are great for most people storing their data on the go. And the best part is they’re free if you only use a small amount of data! Even if you have more to store their pricing plans are fairly affordable.
However, if you have a lot more data to store then you may want to look into buying an external hard drive. They come in lots of different storage sizes ranging from 500 gigabytes all the way up to 20 terabytes! That’s a lot of data – probably more than most people need – but the point is there are plenty of options so you can get the right size for your needs.
Personally, I’ve always used external hard drives from Western Digital. They’ve always been extremely reliable for me over the years. Even though any drive can fail without warning, I’ve never had one of these do so. Each one I’ve had so far has lasted years before it eventually needed replaced. I have included links below if you’re interested in purchasing one of these drives. I have never personally needed more that the 2TB option but have included the 4TB option as well if you think you may need more.
The links below are affiliate links. If you make a purchase I receive a small percentage of the sale. Thank you in advance if you choose to support Bloom Computing by purchasing from one of these links!
Western Digital Elements 2TB: https://amzn.to/4etrpnN
Western Digital Elements 4TB: https://amzn.to/3MNTQ3O
Conclusion
The key thing to remember here is that it is extremely important to back-up your data. It doesn’t matter what method you use to store that data. What matters is that you have the peace of mind to know that you have access to it no matter what happens.
Every modern business from the music industry, to Fortune 500 companies, and everything in between knows how important it is to take regular back-ups. When it comes to your personal data, millions of dollars may not be at stake, but your memories might be.
I hope this was helpful and gave you a look into the importance of back-ups. If you have any questions about this or anything else in the world of tech feel free to send me a message through Contact Us! As always, thank you for reading and for supporting Bloom Computing!
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