On Fri, 13 Nov 2020 15:39:26 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder
wrote:

The drives will likely have fewer than 100 hours on them in 25 years.

While I completely understand your answer, you have to remember these
drives are _external_ drives, connected via USB, for _backup_ purposes.

I understand your problem, and have handled such issues in the past.

While all the drives do not have much time in terms of power-on, they
ALL will have many years of decaying electrical components (such as
circuit boards, chips, and contacts)--which are required to make the
devices work. THAT is your real problem. And is the ONE problem you
have not addressed.

Plan to transfer the data every 5-7 years, from the old media to a new
media. The old stuff WILL be getting more fragile and subject to
failure as time passes, so you want to replace the DEVICE before it
fails--and renders the data stored on it irretrievable.

Banks are required to keep customer info for seven years after each
transaction. So, they use microfilm and microfiche, not electronic
storage of any type. Courts are required to keep court records
forever. They mostly use paper. Their records go back over 100 yrs.

IMO, you need to think about what is needed vs what is cheap to do
today. If the data is not that important, then who cares? It may make
sense to subscribe to multiple online data storage and retrieval
services and let THEM worry about how to store it. That is why you pay
them. If they screw up, you can hold them responsible--unless their
TOS says they are NOT responsible. In which case, why does anyone use
them?