Hi,

reading here and there I’m getting scared and scared about bit rot or similar problems (firmware error? ssd nand ruined?): the disks seems to work fine, but data might be corrupted and so (my) easily backup strategy - that includes two rsynced copies in different places and time, one on ssd and another on hdd - cannot be enough. Please note that all my personal data are on ext4 filesystems and they are less than 1 TB (ok, it’s not a datahoarding size bu this is a sub where theme-related experts are). Maybe the probability is low, and the probability that a critical file is impacted is lowest, but you know Murphy? I do.

Now, the gold solution should be to replace all of my physical servers with others that support ECC ram; then I’ll have to buy at least 3 CMR-disks for building a ZFS raid or a btrfs similar one. Actually this solution is not sustainable because of time, space and cost: so I have to accept the risk to a second best solution… but which? I also would like to avoid the use of other (just optical) media type.

For example, using a backup tool - restic/kopia or proxmox backup server - might riduce the risk? I say so because of an incremental approach might allow me to restore data at selected point in the past. Of course, I have no way to find that point in the past and, moreover, i will lost all data produced after the time point. Maybe I could apply this strategy just to a subset of very critical and immutable data (official documents)? Or, for these documents, I could just use rsync with the checksum option?

As usual, thanks for any suggestion!

  • Far_Marsupial6303B
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    1 year ago

    …but data might be corrupted and so (my) easily backup strategy - that includes two rsynced copies in different places and time, one on ssd and another on hdd - cannot be enough.

    It isn’t enough if you don’t perform a CRC and generate a HASH.

    Obsessing about preventing bitrot is like taking multiple multiple vitamins then crossing the street without checking for traffic. Mantras: Any storage media/device can fail at any time, for any reason, with or without notice. Reliability and longevity is BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!

    Is bitflip/bitrot real? I believe it is. However, the likelihood of it corrupting multiple drives/media at the same time, as long as they’re continually checked, verified and copied to new drives/media is infinitesimally small.

    • wireless82OPB
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      1 year ago

      But if I backup data which are - from the source - bit rotten, the errors wont be propagated to the copies? I am miss8ng something…