Is it safe to mail HDDs?

[Ziggurat]

Back it up to dropbox, and the recipient can just download it at their convenience.

The free version of Dropbox only give you 2 GB of storage. If he's sending an SSD and not just a flash drive, I'm guessing the amount of data is considerably more than that. Paying for a larger account might be an option, but it might not be a better option.

 

[theprestige]

Assuming it's actually an SSD.

ETA: Plain text can compress down to 2GB from as much as 20GB. Military documents probably contain a lot of repetitive passages, and are thus likely to get pretty close to that ideal.

Too bad there's never any useful technical information in these kinds of questions. Make and model of the drives? Nope. Size of the dataset? Nope. Compression, if any? Nope. Might as well ask if they should just leave the drive on the front porch and wait for the sneakernet fairies to see it to its home. To which my answer is "yes, do that."

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The free version of Dropbox only give you 2 GB of storage. If he's sending an SSD and not just a flash drive, I'm guessing the amount of data is considerably more than that. Paying for a larger account might be an option, but it might not be a better option.

582 gig of WWII documents.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Back it all up to a couple of 512GB microSD cards. Then send the cards.

<edit> Actually that's a bit expensive.

Still, if the recipient is paying that hardly matters compared to the value of the data, right?

If not, you can use cheap off-brand cards and tell them to copy everything off as you want the cards back. That way they have to actually read all the data off the cards so you know they copied okay.

 

[theprestige]

582 gig of WWII documents.

So too big for free Dropbox. This reddit thread has some alternatives:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudstorage/comments/134wyed/cheapest_cloud_storage_for_basic_use

Are these docs already up on your hyperwar website? You could probably just release the source files to there, with download links. Probably want to check the TOS of your website provider first, though.

 

[theprestige]

Or... Have you tried praying the data away?

 

[rjh01]

I suggest you retain a backup version of the data. Then if the drive is lost you have not lost the data.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Back it all up to a couple of 512GB microSD cards. Then send the cards.

I have >599 gigabytes of files on that disk.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I do backup on everything that will or may go online at my sites. Hyperwar is my main site, over one million visitors to a history site, not bad.

And I'm handing off ownership to a pair of history buffs who are about one half a century younger than me. This shipment will be the last of the material that I hadn't put online yet.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

I have >599 gigabytes of files on that disk.

I was supposing you could put half on each of two cards.

How about this: If the recipients were willing to go onto Amazon and order a 1TB SD card or MicroSD card to be sent to you, you could put everything on that and mail it to them. Let them decide how enthusiastic they are, and to choose if they want your data on a premium brand card or a dodgy one.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I was supposing you could put half on each of two cards.

How about this: If the recipients were willing to go onto Amazon and order a 1TB SD card or MicroSD card to be sent to you, you could put everything on that and mail it to them. Let them decide how enthusiastic they are, and to choose if they want your data on a premium brand card or a dodgy one.

I have a surfeit of storage so this isn't an inconvenience for me. I'm of the "Two or more copies or none" school.

 

[Planigale]

I have a surfeit of storage so this isn't an inconvenience for me. I'm of the "Two or more copies or none" school.

You need to update your front page it is now His Majesty!

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Where's my front page?

 

[Planigale]

Where's my front page?

HyperWar: World War II on the World Wide Web

1: A collection of source documents and official U.S. military histories related to the Second World War. All are presented in HTML format, with hyperlinks wherever appropriate, and anchors to permit easy linking/citation of the volumes. 2: Order of Battle information for U.S. Army, U.S. Army...

www.ibiblio.org

The content of HyperWar consists primarily of official documents produced byvarious agencies of the United States, United Kingdom and British Commonwealthgovernments. All documents produced by the U.S. government are "born"in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). Documents produced bythe U.K. and Commonwealth governments are protected by Crown Copyright, however ,Her Majesty graciously permits reproduction 50 years after publicationprovided only that an acknowledgment of the Crown's copyright is included.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

HyperWar: World War II on the World Wide Web

1: A collection of source documents and official U.S. military histories related to the Second World War. All are presented in HTML format, with hyperlinks wherever appropriate, and anchors to permit easy linking/citation of the volumes. 2: Order of Battle information for U.S. Army, U.S. Army...

www.ibiblio.org

Until tomorrow, when I hand the keys over to a new team.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"EAST WIND RAIN" might be informative for some people.

 

[Planigale]

"EAST WIND RAIN" might be informative for some people.

Link?

This sounds awful like a confidential document that reading might put you on a death list.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

It was a prearranged coded signal from the Japanese foreign office, to tell their diplomats negotiations with the US were over.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yep. Hyperwar has the full diplomatic and confidential code transcripts. https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/