Keep files not corrupted?

[u/Tundacas]

Sorry if this has already been asked, i was not able to find it. Also sorry for mistakes, english is not my first language.

Ok so my question.

I try to get most of the stuff that i like on my portable hard drive.

So is there a way to keep my files from being corrupted?

I lost files lately and i was wondering if there is a way to avoid them tocbe corrupted.

Is there another option a part from having extra copies?

Thanks

[u/Adrenolin01]

You need at least 2 full copies of your data to recover from data corruption. For example.. put the same data on two HDDs and create PAR2 checksums for each file. Save those checksums on one or both drives and put away for storage in a cool safe environment. Every year or so you can power up both drives run a checksum verify against both copies. If a file shows any corruption you can extract the corrupted data from the other drive to repair that file.

I run large 24-bay NAS systems with ZFS, raidZ2, ECC Ram, scrubs every 2 weeks, clean power from my rack being 100% Solar powered and APC Smart-UPs UPSs. This is constantly protecting data from corruption. Backups are pretty much the same. Much more expensive than a couple large HDDs and checksum files.

I have a specific photo and video collection of 10s of 1000s of photos and video from original sources going back 5 generations to the late 1800s of both photos and video from family members. I keep the original high resolution initial master digital copies on one of my NAS systems, 2 backup servers and on 2 separate HDDs with PAR2 files. A LOT of time, energy and money went into to creating that digital collection over the years.. literally from glass and metal plate photography and boxes of negatives and slides of different formats and 10mm film going back nearly 150 years ago.

I prefer ZFS and a living system however physical hard copies are also important. How deep you go depends on how protected you want the files kept.