If you are wondering how long your data will last on various devices then here is your answer..
Most people simply assume that if they save their data on a memory stick it will be there years later – its unlikely.
Storage devices are ALL prone to issues called Bit Rot, Bit Flip, Degradation, Corruption and Failure.
As a data recovery company, we get a lot of people wanting to recover from a range of devices and mediums.
Tape
How long does tape storage last?
Answer: 15 to 30 years in ideal temperatures, controlled low humidity, vacuum sealed and magnetic interference free with a single write cycle.
Reality: Tape usually lasts 1 to 3 years – Microsoft claims 42% failure rate and Storage Magazine claims 77% failure within 1 year. Any tape that has been used more than 50 times should literally go in the bin.
Oxidisation, tape stretch and magnetic disruption seems to cause data loss. Drives are non-standardised and drive failure can mean its not easy to read the tape. A tape drive can have a misaligned head causing the tape to not read in any other drive. Tape is slow, very temperature sensitive but can store large amounts. Oddly there are many companies still promoting tape as a good solution.
Tape Rating: 1/10
Floppy Disk
How long does a floppy disk last?
Answer: Up to 5 years but its prone to corruption and only gives a maximum of 40 hours usable r/w time when new.
Reality: Some floppy disks fail in minutes, some last a year and if you make 5 to 10 years then you are very lucky. I have seen some that survived 20 years but needed data recovery software to get back around 80% of the data but they had been stored in air tight boxes.
They are really prone to oxidisation, magnetic loss or other magnetic fields, dust/head scratch surface damage and can suffer a bad case of bit rot.
Tape Rating: 0/10
CD / DVD
How long does a CD / DVD storage last?
Answer: 2 to 5 year if looked after without scratching, at room temperature, reasonably low humidity and no sun exposure.
Reality: You are lucky if your compact disk lasts a few months when its being used regularly but even when stored safely they degrade due to oxidisation and/or light exposure and will often fail within 5 to 10 years but some claim a CD survived 15-20 years but this is fairly rare.
CD/DVD Rating: 1/10
Blu-Ray vs M-Disc
How long does Blu-Ray vs M-Disc last?
Any of these discs can be damaged by scratching but the M-Disc is less prone. Blu-Rays exposed to the elements fail very quickly.
Blu-Ray in semi-controlled environment if unscratched, out of direct sunlight, room temperature and under 70% humidity will last 5 to 10+ years.
Blu-Ray in controlled environment with no light and vacuum sealed will last 25 to 50 years.
Blu-Ray M-Disc Archival in a controlled environment will last 1000+ years but an NIST report listed it at 100+ years.
The original M-Disc company (Millenniata) went out of business but now Verbatim has made a new versions of this disk which includes a 50 and 100Gb discs with 6x write speed.
The M-Disc Archival has better layer protection from moisture and uses a much more durable material helping it to outlast a standard Blu-Ray in oxidisation, light and temperature.
Datasheets show there is a large difference in storage duration if the humidity is higher than 70%+
https://www.verbatim.jp/special/mdisc-01.html
https://www.verbatim.jp/download/products/mdisc/report_tl_j.pdf
https://www.verbatim.jp/download/products/mdisc/M-DISC_1sheet_DataLayer_vF.pdf
https://www.verbatim.jp/download/products/mdisc/M-DISC_1sheet_ChinaLake_vF.pdf
The original M-Disc had a gold back with “MID/DISC ID:MILLEN-MR1-000” inscribed, new versions can be silver but make sure its genuine verbatim.
Reality: M-Disc is by far one of the highest capacity and longest lasting storage mediums there is. Provided its stored scratch free, dust free, no light, room temperature, low humidity, and/or vacuum sealed – you can expect 100+ or even 1000+ years storage.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5/10
M-Disc Rating: 9/10
HDD Hard Disk Drives
How long does a hard drive last?
Answer: up to 5 years on average.
Reality: There is a very high chance of failure in the first 3 months and again after 3 to 5 years. Drives over 5 years should be replaced. Cheaper and smaller drives have a higher failure rate but on average depending on brand there is a +-1.89% annual failure rate across the storage range up to 22TB.
Hard drives are also likely to fail when exposed to bumps, vibrations and high temperatures. Hard drives even in RAID setups can end up loosing all your data, so always have a double backup elsewhere or in the cloud.
Backblaze is a great resource showing drive test data over time:
https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/resources/hard-drive-test-data
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q3-2024/
There is always the question of which hard drive is better. In general Western Digital are the best as they give easy to read SMART data which helps to see a failure coming. However different size drives of different categories like desktop vs enterprise all have winners in each sector.
Helium filled large capacity drives 8TB and great for storage size but are far more difficult to recover if they fail. Never store large amounts of data without multiple redundancies in place. If you suspect a drive is failing – stop using it right away to avoid data loss. It requires specialist equipment and knowledge to recover data on a drive that is in the process of failing. Don’t be tempted by free software online, it will actually cause more damage in most cases if its a hardware failure. Software is only good with deleted files. Not all drives can be data recovered if the internal disk surface is rotten/damaged as this not only contains the data but also important hidden sectors (combined with firmware from the onboard microchip) with device firmware instructing, telling the drive how to read the balance of the data on the disk.
Also note that a drive that in daily use will auto correct minor errors or notify the SMART warning system that there is a significant problem on the disk but a drive left in storage won’t be able to self correct minor ‘bit flips/rots’ slowly over time and when it comes to turning it on the chance of recovery will be long gone. Enterprise drives are designed for 24/7 operation and desktop drives a mere 8hrs a day.
HDD Rating: 4/10
SSD Solid State Drives
How long do SSD/NvME drives last?
Answer: 5 years on average with annual failure rate of 0.90%. Low usage SSDs can last 10 years.
Reality: They do last longer than hard drives depending on how often they are written to but are also prone to sudden catastrophic failure which in many cases there is no chance of recovery. Cheap SSDs that are used with a lot of write cycles typically only last 1 year.
There is another issue and that is if the drive is not cycled through with re-written data then it can also be prone to bit rot data loss / corruption.
SSDs are not sensitive to bumps and vibrations which makes them safer for laptops and a lot fast than a hard drive for operating system drives.
However they can be more sensitive to power spikes, temperature, controller/encryption failures and failure of the entire NAND flash chip.
Like HDDs they are also prone to a higher failure rate when new and again after 3 years.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/ssd-edition-2023-mid-year-drive-stats-review/
There is always the question of which hard drive is better. Samsung is king followed by Crucial, Sabrent and WD Black. Don’t buy cheap SSD/NVME drives. If you computer is giving unusual errors or running slow – check that the SSD/NVME is not failing.
SSD Rating: 5/10
Flash Memory / USB Sticks
How long do USB memory sticks last?
Answer: 2 to 10 Years.
Reality: 0 Years – USB Flash Memory Sticks have very high failure rates and is the best way to loose your data.
They tend to get corrupted very easily when not ejected correctly which happens often.
They loose their memory due to the method of storage. They trap electrons in a kind of floating state that represent these 0 or 1. But these electrons can change over time. This causes the data to degrade because it becomes harder to read whether the charge state represents a 0 or 1.
Flash Rating: 1/10
Blaustahl USB Storage Device
How long do “Blaustahl Storage Devices” last?
Answer: 95 to 200+ Years.
https://machdyne.com/product/blaustahl-storage-device/
Reality: Although untested they should last over 100+ Years but these devices only store 8KB in FRAM which is 8000 text characters – smaller than a photo. They have the option of physical write protection. A critical bit of information or secret code would be ideal to store on this device.
Blaustahl Rating: 9/10
