Re: OT: backup panic?

On 9/13/2024 2:25 AM, Martin Brown wrote:

You may find that the oxide coat falls off when you try to read them.

Or, the drive/transport doesn't work.  Or, the controller that
talks to it.  Or, the OS/driver that talks to *that*!
The fallacy behind all storage mechanisms is that you have no
assurance of the data's integrity /and accessibility/ until (and
unless) you actually TRY to access it *and* verify it's integrity.
How do you reassure yourself that the contents of a particular
volume are /as they should be/ -- unless you have some sort
of "signature" that you can verify (in lieu of a duplicate copy
of the volume's contents)
[I maintain a database of all files in my "collection" along with
hashes of each so I can reassure myself that they are intact.  I
am also "prompted" by that collection to let it reexamine volumes
that it hasn't had a chance to validate in a particular period
(it automatically validates the contents of any volume it "notices"
as being accessible)]
This is why there are mechanisms like patrol read to refresh/reassure
of the integrity of data that may not be actively inspected at this time.

That might be on its last legs. I knew someone who used them as disposable items literally wearing them out the way they were used.

Thumb drives go to pot pretty quickly.  Write times start to increase
dramatically.  Eventually, they all seem to resort to a "read only" mode
which effectively makes them useless.