Digital Media Storage

 "Whenever you want to cheer yourself up, consider the good qualities of your companions.  For example: The energy of one, the modesty of another, the generosity of yet another, and some other quality of another.  For nothing cheers the heart as much as the images of excellence reflected in the character of our companions, all brought before us as fully as possible.  Therefore, keep these images ready at hand." - Marcus Aurelius

 Today's post is about digital media storage.  I'm not sure why this one popped into my head, but I think it has to do with being prepared.  I've posted about being prepared before, but that post was about basic needs, like shelter, food and mental health in trying times.  This post is about being prepared for the possibility that some event might may turn our digital data into scrambled eggs.

As I said before, the difference between being prepared and being paranoid is:  With the former, you act with the understanding that bad things sometimes happen, and a little preparation will save you a lot of grief.  With the latter, there is an emotional conviction that something horrendous is just around the corner, and you spend a great deal of time and money preparing for a possible (but unlikely) event. 

So to shorten that last paragraph: Prepare a bit, but don't be an idiot about it.  Easier said than done for some, I know.

So this post about preparing for a digital event.  Any number of events could cause a digital scramble.  A Geomagnetic Storm such as the Carrington Event could do it.  In 1859 a major Coronal Mass Ejection struck the earth's magnetic field.  The resulting electromagnetic waves burned out the primitive telegraph systems of the day.  An equivalent event would destroy a great deal of modern infrastructure, such as electrical grids, satellites (GPS, communication and weather sats gone!), delicate electronics such as phones, PCs, TVs, automotive (engine control modules!), and so on.

The cause might not even be natural.  An EMP - Electromagnetic Pulse caused by a high-altitude nuclear detonation (or many such) would have the same effect.  An EMP device doesn't even require a high-altitude nuke any more, but could still do serious localized damage.  Or maybe a virus gets loose from a secret lab and infects every country around the entire globe.  Nah that would never happen.

Point is, you probably don't want to lose your important digital documents - Certificates, owner's manuals, letters, photos, music, videos, etc etc.  If that stuff matters a lot to you, then it's a good idea to do a little preparation - just in case!  Be a Boy Scout and be prepared!

First up, cloud storage.  Not a fan.  No wait, that's not quite true - I hate cloud storage with all my heart and all my soul.  Hate is a pretty strong word, but it's applicable here.  Once you send your data to the "cloud" - which is just a bullshit word for someone else's computer - it's no longer yours.  It's now in someone else's hands.  You have no idea how secure it is from being damaged, stolen, snooped or lost.  Cloud storage is, I'll say it again, Bullshit.  Don't do this, and don't trust this.

 

Next up is home-gamer digital magnetic storage - an internal or external back-up drive.  If we ever experience one of these Electromagnetic events, your magnetic storage device had better be securely stored in a Faraday Cage  - basically a grounded metallic enclosure.  If not, it will be smoked along with everything else.  If instead it's a global computer virus that eats data, if your back-up drive is connected to your PC, a virus will infect it too.  This means that you need to leave the back-up drive disconnected (to protect against virus) and stored in a Faraday Cage (to protect against EMP) all the time.  You *could* use an external back-up drive and disconnect and store in a separate safe location when you are not actually backing up data.  It's a hassle, but this is what most companies do.

 

My favorite digital storage technique - although it is also a hassle - is digital optical storage.  An EMP should not affect a CD/ROM, DVD/ROM or Blu-Ray disc.  The amount of radiation it would take to damage the optical surfaces on a disc will probably kill you as well, and at that point there is no need to worry about keeping your data.  I keep the important stuff - images of family and documents - backed up on Blu-Ray discs.  I don't worry too much if the PC gets wiped.  It would probably make my life easier if it did, hahaha.

I'm not telling anyone what to do, or how to store their data.  I'm telling you what I do, and trying to get you thinking about preparing.  Here's to having a restoration plan for your own data...