The Music Industry’s ’90s Hard Drives Are Dying

[rostasi]

The hard disk drives that the music industry relied on to archive a generation of albums are increasingly unreadable.

[JSngry]

oops!!!!!!

[Teasing the Korean]

So if the answer is routine transferring of files to new hard drives from older ones before they fail, what is the likelihood of errors being introduced into the chain of copies?

[Stompin at the Savoy]

39 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

So if the answer is routine transferring of files to new hard drives from older ones before they fail, what is the likelihood of errors being introduced into the chain of copies?

Very, very low if you copy them properly (operating system, robocopy, quality backup utilities, etc).  The operating system is set up to do checksum and validation when you copy files (apps typically use the operating system under the hood).

Edited Saturday at 01:48 PM by Stompin at the Savoy

[Teasing the Korean]

2 minutes ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

Very, very low if you copy them properly (operating system, robocopy, quality backup utilities, etc).  The operating system is set up to do checksum and validation when you copy files (apps typically use the operating system under the hood).

Well, that's a relief.  Because I have been doing the same with my external drives for the past 15 years or so.

[Stompin at the Savoy]

One trend that is developing out of this issue is shifting the burden of backup to file distributors.  So if you buy mp3's from Amazon, you don't need to back them up because you can always download again from Amazon.  I think Qobuz also has unlimited or at least several download opportunities for each file.

Now that the need is well established people will probably come up with better long-term storage options.

[rostasi]

I think externals are still the very best we've got these days.
I still love Backblaze, but I still don't completely depend on
someone else to hold my stuff, so, for example, before their
first rate hike in ages, I figured it was a good idea to have them
send me my music again on externals. There are just times in
your computer life that you decide that it's time to send your
stuff to a fresh drive. It's really a small price to pay to be able
to have huge quantities in such small packages. Even with the 
new computer that I'm gonna have to buy soon, externals will be
the go-to 'cause SSDs just can't cut it when it comes to archiving.

[mjzee]

4 hours ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

One trend that is developing out of this issue is shifting the burden of backup to file distributors.  So if you buy mp3's from Amazon, you don't need to back them up because you can always download again from Amazon. 

As long as Amazon still carries that album.

[Stompin at the Savoy]

2 hours ago, mjzee said:

As long as Amazon still carries that album.

Right.  Well, I don't actually buy mp3s from Amazon any more, preferring cd or better resolution.  But I do like the principle that having bought a record, you can download it again if your drive blows up.  Amazon applies the same reasoning to Kindle books - you don't need to back them up, just download again if your copy gets lost.  It's a good idea because otherwise we all end up spending way too much time curating our collections and keeping them stable (!).

[mikeweil]

So keep and care for your vinyl.