Bit Rot

[pir8radio 1312]

I started collecting my music videos and mp3's when the mp3 codec first came out....   In case none of you have put 2 & 2 together, a group of us used to run a few pirate radio stations (actual radio not internet).   We used to play CD's and some vinyl.   You had to pick your line-up before your show started, call-in requests were tough you had to know your cd collection by heart, queuing up station promos meant either using old "cart" 's  or a burnt CD you had in the second cd player. lol...    So as soon as the mp3 codec came out we could rip all of our cd's and put them on hard drives (hence my server name "nam" or (not all mine) the music was a group collection of paid for CD's and records)  we then switched over to using Virtual DJ software, we didn't need 2-4 cd players, a big mixer, cart machines, or any of that crap any more..   now you could search for a song when a request came in, or something came to mind you wanted to hear yourself...     ahh the good ol' days 

 

ANYWAY...  Bit Rot,  the point above was I started this collection a long time ago, it has traveled through multiple drives, arrays, servers, usb sticks, zip drives, tape backup, online backups etc and over the years I have seen lots of Bit Rot (nothing recently).    My stuff is all stored on SAS drives now, with redundancy blah blah blah...   But during the SCSI, IDE, SATA days my library has taken a hit..    Due to moving files from system to system I dont think I can get those pesky rotten bits back...    

 

Have any of you had anything similar happen?  Do you use some software to check your files for stuff like that?  Just curious...   Attached is an example of a music video where bitrot has eaten it, but it can still be played, kind of.  I have many videos that can no longer even play.   It hurts to delete them..  

 

 

 

LOL here is a blast from the past....  one of our radio promo's    :  CLICK HERE  Might need to right click and save (this link will self-destruct in 30 days.... really)

 

On second though I better not attach a music video, even if its not watchable...  But here is what bit rot looks like in a music video:

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by pir8radio

[Luke 42077]

@@Abobader might be able to relate.

[sfatula 207]

On Linux, using zfs with raidz and it is doing a weekly scrub which should find any bitrot.

[riothamus 53]

I second the ZFS bit.  I am running ZFS on my Linux system where my media is stored for the sole purpose of avoiding this exact problem. 

 

Back when I was in college in the late 90's, I had a radio show at the college radio station.  I too (fondly) remember fiddling with the large mixer boards and CD cart boxes.  Everything was done by hand, we didn't have any software to manage anything.  Not even a computer in the control room.  We even logged our playlists on paper.

Edited February 5, 2020 by riothamus

[adrianwi 279]

Back in 1991/92 I spent a year at Millersville University, PA as an exchange student, and had a radio show on Milersville 91.7 WIXQ

Edited February 5, 2020 by adrianwi

[pir8radio 1312]

On Linux, using zfs with raidz and it is doing a weekly scrub which should find any bitrot.

 

 

I second the ZFS bit.  I am running ZFS on my Linux system where my media is stored for the sole purpose of avoiding this exact problem. 

 

Back when I was in college in the late 90's, I had a radio show at the college radio station.  I too (fondly) remember fiddling with the large mixer boards and CD cart boxes.  Everything was done by hand, we didn't have any software to manage anything.  Not even a computer in the control room.  We even logged our playlists on paper.

 

 

Back in 1991/92 I spent a year at Millersville University, PA as an exchange student, and had a radio show on Milersville 91.7 WIXQ

 

 

Yea well i was all about Macintosh and WIndows OS's back then, knew nothing of linux or ZFS.     My array I keep my files on today, is by far the best I have ever had my collection on..    I used to have a stack of 80gig usb hard drives that my collection was spread out on those... lol...   until one of my WD drives started the awesome "clicking" sound of the head running home for a second and then attempting to go back out and read, over and over...   Then I got my first NAS (stuff wasn't cheap then either)  now i had raid mirroring.. That helped but i still had strange things happen to my data...   I know have a 12 bay array that has all spinning disks, with three SSD's that do data tiering and assist iops, the array has cache batteries and all of that good stuff...  I mean its no Nimble Storage AF40, but its a great emby array  .  I have not seen any bit rot since, it just sucks that it happened in the first place..