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frogglegs

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Long term backup data

What is the best backup for archival purposes...Can someone give me references or details between different storage mediums...cdr, hd, flash drives, tape...etc..

Cost is somewhat of a consideration as well...
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I agree with leew.  While tape archival is far from perfect, it's long-term characteristics and decay mechanisms are well understood.  All other means are far too new to have such a track record.
Fact of life, fact of nature. Plus and Minus always try 'to find' each other and make zero.
Any magnetic based media is going to degrade over time.
Hard drive, floppy, zip, tape, others,,, magnetic based.....
DVD or CD is not magnetic and will live longer without becoming corrupt but it's a more painful backup process.

I recommend a hybrid backup system/procedure.

I recommend doing the backup onto tape but then backup the tape onto a recordable DVD or CD.
This way if (and when because it will) the tape goes bad you can simply recover the backup from the optical media back onto a tape.

To make life easier have a basic (older, inexpensive, left over from last upgrade type thing) system around to do the tape to optical backup to optical. This way the 'work' system isn't busy when you backup your backup.
Better yet. If this is critical data make two copies of the optical media and store them in different physical locations.
[ Copy at the office, copy at the house - kind of thing. ]

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I'd say either tape or ONE-TIME (not "RW") optical media.

There's more history with tape, but the media makers say optical media can last many, many decades to centuries if properly written and stored.

I have hundreds of 8-inch floppy disks from the 1970's and they are still completely readable at more than a 99% level, and as antique computer are a hobby of mine, I talk to other antique computer users, and we all find that 30 years is no problem for 8-inch floppy diskettes that were stored properly.  Tape uses the same basic type of magnetic medium in a different format, and has been around for as long, thus looks good for decades (but probably not centuries).

I also have CD-R going back to 1995, and it's still fine if the media was good and it was well recorded (I can tell NOW, a decade later, which media was good (most of the name brand stuff was) and which drives were good).  However I do think that there are more people with optical drives that "write lightly" (don't fully burn the media) than anyone knows.  And I don't yet have a good feel for DVD media or, in particular, DL DVD media (dual layer).
The only "BEST" is the one that works for you.  I find tapes an antiquated inefficient debacle of yesteryear, but some people who live in the past think they are great.  I would go with nothing but fast IDE drives on a network storage server, backed by DVD archives of the old backups of systems.  But each person has their prejudices.  Some are behind the times, others are up with the leading edge.  You will have to research it and find what technology you can cope with, many cant face the future of backup.
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I dont think that hard drives will be more expensive...

If you want it on tape you will have to pay for the tape drive, the backup software and the tape itself. In 15 years time you will probably find it difficult to reinstall the software on the new 128 / 256 bit operating systems and you will find it hard to get the hardware to function on the new PCs.

Instead buy 2 cheap IDE disk drives and back  them up on that. A couple of months ago I bought 2 320Gb drives for less than £200
Here in the US, Best Buy was selling WD 320gb SATA drives for $99 (no rebates, either).

Hard drives are is a good choice for a single backup, but it's hopeless if you are trying to keep an archive of {daily, weekly, monthly} backups.  Personally, I prefer DVD for backup, but many are not comfortable with that for a variety of reasons.  In a year or two, that will transition to HD DVD or (I personally hope) Blu-Ray, with a capcity of 50 gig or more per disc.

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I would not go the hard drive route for long term backup. Hard drives are subject to failure (otherwise why was RAID invented). Also buying "cheap" hard drives can be asking for trouble too. Hard drives are good for short term quick access but with some danger due to failure. Regarding tapes, I have had some where it writes and verifies perfectly but some time later it can't be read.  I agree that CD or DVD is the best for long term.