What is an economical way to achieve read-only backups of files larger than a dvd, given that dell desktop pcs no longer support 5.25" bays that accomadate bluray writers ? My current system uses a $100 bluray writer and media that costs $5. Is it possible to get spinning sata harddrives with a physical write protect switch ? I tried numerous icybox usb enclosures but the write protect switch does not protect against all writes - for instance when the write protect switch is enabled, you can issue a discpart clean command and the drive is wiped.
1 Answer
I was about to suggest LTO for the most economical not-easily-erasable and write-protectable backup medium, but judging from your apparent backup size that's likely overkill and not very economical.
Beginning at ca. 20€/TB, HDDs are about one tenth the cost of BD-Rs.
They can't be made read-only easily (unless you put them in a NAS), but if you use a revolving pattern with a few disks and never delete your backups then you've got a rather resilient yet economical backup.