Backup Files for Engineering Drawings: Store or Delete?

[ousteveok]

I have been taught to never delete old data files, because server space is cheap. However, our company has old engineering drawing files. Should we delete the old backup files or store the information on a 1 TB portable drive for later excess by technical support? The info will not be use for media purposes, but on occasion by technical support in the engineering’s department.

 

[jedishrfu]

Yes, its always bad to delete files as you NEVER know when you might need them again especially files with user created information like these.

http://www.switched.com/2010/04/29/10-ways-to-keep-your-data-safe-2/

Also its best to save using multiple formats and with multiple copies saved in multiple locations. As an example, save the files to a couple of external hard drives and a couple of USB sticks and a couple of DVDs and store one backup copy at work and another off-site say in a bank vault.

Remember hard drives are sensitive to magnetism which could erode the data over time. USB sticks aren't affected by magnetism but are susceptible to static electricity at any time and voltage surges if connected.

DVDs are affected by heat and by scratches if improperly handled or damaged by a drive head when reading them (sand on the surface causing head to scratch it when reading).

http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/how-to-store-your-data-forever-38190.html

Digital tape is affected by magnetism and sometimes by tape mangling. The tape shelf life is roughly 10 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Data_Storage

Here's an article on data management which may be way more than you need but also may give you ideas on how to properly manage your files:

http://ori.hhs.gov/education/products/clinicaltools/data.pdf

and here's the counterpoint article on how to get rid of sensitive data:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_remanence