# Is it safe?



## Eyeball (Nov 8, 2020)

I've saved a lot of survival hints and tips and stuff to my external hard drive for posterity, but I can't help wondering if a solar flare from the sun might wipe it.
Same goes for disks that I've burned stuff to
Shall I keep the drive and disks wrapped in kitchen foil or what?


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Eyeball said:


> I've saved a lot of survival hints and tips and stuff to my external hard drive for posterity, but I can't help wondering if a solar flare from the sun might wipe it.
> Same goes for disks that I've burned stuff to
> Shall I keep the drive and disks wrapped in kitchen foil or what?


Sure. Why not.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

CDs aren't a very good long-term storage solution. Hard drives aren't much better as they're subject to failure. You best bet is to have three copies of everything stored at three distinct street addresses.

Just 'wrapping it with foil' doesn't do much good. You need an insulating layer between the foil and the item.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)




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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

Ummmm, no. Faraday cage or the shiz is gone after a flare.


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## AquaHull (Jun 10, 2012)

I live in a Faraday cage


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## Piratesailor (Nov 9, 2012)

AquaHull said:


> I live in a Faraday cage


I you ARE a faraday cage... LOL


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## Piratesailor (Nov 9, 2012)

And CD’s degrade over time. Actually found that out the hard way even thought I knew it for years. Just ignored it until.. but I recovered them.

External hard drive would go in a flair.. or most flairs. So many variables as to be unknown what would happen. 

Paper...


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## Alteredstate (Jul 7, 2016)

Listen let's be serious. Keep it on the original drive. Back it up on two alternate things, c.d. thumb drive, portable drive, floppy disk, enscribed in stone. Pick your poison. If a solar flare hits with enough ass to wipe out your three storage ideals you are going to have major issues with most everything. And the least worry you will have is trying to restore data from a thumb drive. You will be restoring from the memory that you carry-on in your mind.


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## Weldman (Nov 7, 2020)

How out one just print the stuff up or really go old school and write it down and put it in a safe. Doesn't matter what you save to a floppy disk, CD, thumb drive, VHS it won't matter if all electronics to access such files is fried from such reasons as to why your storage device got fried. Then you got to think about how are you going to power it up, gen sets only last so long and PV systems will be fried.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Weldman said:


> How out one just print the stuff up or really go old school and write it down and put it in a safe. Doesn't matter what you save to a floppy disk, CD, thumb drive, VHS it won't matter if all electronics to access such files is fried from such reasons as to why your storage device got fried. Then you got to think about how are you going to power it up, gen sets only last so long and PV systems will be fried.


There's lots of ways to keep it all running.


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## paulag1955 (Dec 15, 2019)

Make whatever digital backups you want, but do you know what won't be destroyed in the event of an EMP or CME? Hard copies.


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## FoulHal (Nov 11, 2020)

I agree with those suggesting hard copies, but also keep it on a thumb drive in your safe.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

FoulHal said:


> I agree with those suggesting hard copies, but also keep it on a thumb drive in your safe.


Safes are not faraday cages. Electronics are far better off in a proper faraday cage.


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## Elvis (Jun 22, 2018)

Having a CD or thumb drive backup is useless without a computer with power to read it.

You can protect electronics from all but the most extreme EMP pulse by double bagging it in Faraday bags like this. https://www.amazon.com/Tech-Protect...faraday+bag&qid=1605129716&sr=8-5&tag=mh0b-20

Triple bagging is even better and the bags come in several sizes including one large enough to hold a 100 watt solar panel. Dr. Bradly is a ex-Nasa engineer who has made several videos on this. This is a good video for you to learn from. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...7C58E62D31DE458ECE047C58E62D31DE&&FORM=VDRVRV

Create a small but good paper library and consider digital storage as your second source of information. Keep a thumb drive full of good info. Someday when you retire an older laptop toss it into a EMP bag, Play with a small solar setup and toss the inverter and controller into a bag, The panel will probably be fine with EMP.

As someone who preps I've found that sometimes it takes a bit of practice to actually learn a skill, book knowledge can start you in the right direction but don't think that a CD of "How to Survive" books is going to keep you alive.


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## FoulHal (Nov 11, 2020)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Safes are not faraday cages. Electronics are far better off in a proper faraday cage.


Safes will generally protect most electronics from EMPs.

The 2004 EMP Commission test showed that 90% of cars did not suffer any permanent damage to their electrical systems. One of the contributing factors was the metal cage of a car acts as a partial Faraday cage and the other is the nature of the onboard electronics typically being held within a metal box and having short circuitry.

A safe will act as a much better Faraday cage than a car; think of all the gaps in coverage on a car. Of course, with a safe, you need to have one with a mechanical means of opening it, because the strictly electronic ones have the electric keypad (made of plastic with some metal components) exposed on the outside.

To be certain, it would be best to have any electronics in the safe also nested in another Faraday cage.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

FoulHal said:


> Safes will *generally* protect *most* electronics from EMPs.........


In other words, it's not a faraday cage. If the goal is to actually protect electronics, I'll not be using some that 'generally', protect 'most' of what I'm trying to protect.

There's lots of urban legends about what makes a proper faraday cage. Microwaves. Ammo cans. Metal coolers. Mylar bags. Freezers. File cabinets....


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## FoulHal (Nov 11, 2020)

Back Pack Hack said:


> In other words, it's not a faraday cage. If the goal is to actually protect electronics, I'll not be using some that 'generally', protect 'most' of what I'm trying to protect.
> 
> There's lots of urban legends about what makes a proper faraday cage. Microwaves. Ammo cans. Metal coolers. Mylar bags. Freezers. File cabinets....


True, there are a lot of urban legends such as cars will stop working after an EMP event. People know cars have a ton of electronics in them, and since they aren't being driven in Faraday cages, they believe the electronics will be fried and they will stop running.

When 37 cars were subjected to EMP pulses ranging in varying strengths. The cars with their engines off experienced no adverse effects. When the cars were running, 25 showed only minor "nuisance" issues, and 8 showed not one single issue.

Have you ever tried to start a car with a dead computer?

I suppose one explanation could be that a Shaman performed a ritual that protected the electronics in the cars, but I read a couple of analysis of it which deduced the frames acted as a shield by spreading it out, just like what happens when lightning strikes a car.

Why do you believe the computers in the cars survived?

Here is the report from the 2004 EMP Commission (I'll look for the two articles discussing the results):

http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf Page 115


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## Old SF Guy (Dec 15, 2013)

I kid you not, I have these. You can buy 3 or 4, and get a USB to USB-C adapter for your phone. put them all in a small metal can, wrap it in aluminum foil, then seal it with wax. put it in the ground...and bob's ur uncle.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-elite-x-fit-512gb-usb-3-1-flash-drive/6425208.p?skuId=6425208&ref=212&loc=1&ref=212&loc=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA17P9BRB2EiwAMvwNyKPjMj5eWpkI5aHXrSv3Uw6i7_jYj-UFm4Hv6lfSz7JcA_FzXS4zjBoCFpEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds









4 equals 2 TB's of solid state storage. 
= 426 DVD's or 6000 CD's worth of data.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Old SF Guy said:


> I kid you not, I have these. You can buy 3 or 4, and get a USB to USB-C adapter for your phone. .......


Not all phones can utilize OTG cords.


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## Old SF Guy (Dec 15, 2013)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Not all phones can utilize OTG cords.


true but it can work with a computer, Mac, and all the android phones I have. also have some 128GB ones from Sandisk (sdcz430-128g)


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## Eyeball (Nov 8, 2020)

......................


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## Eyeball (Nov 8, 2020)

Thanks guys, yes if our stored data gets wiped I suppose we can always go back to reading survival tips in oldfashioned things called 'books'..

PS- Apart from nuclear blasts in WW3, the sun might let rip with a solar flare now and again, and for the record here's a list of major solar flares that have hit the earth and their effects-

_Sep 1859- Telegraph wires burst into flames, touching off fires .Telegraph machines scorched paper printouts, stunned operators with electric shocks, transmitted gibberish, and continued working for hours even after being unplugged from the batteries that powered them. The Earth itself was no longer "grounded"!

November 1882- another massive solar flare lit lamps, disrupted telegraph communications, and set off several fires on the Chicago telegraph switchboard, melting instruments.

November 1903- solar storm not only disrupted telegraphs and the transatlantic cable; it even shut down Swiss streetcars.

March 1940- severe solar storm burnt out fuses and damaged hundreds of miles of telegraph and telephone networks.

March 1989- a major solar flare shorted out Quebec's power grid. Circuits also overloaded in Great Britain, New York and Virginia. A critical transformer melted in New Jersey.

November 2003- an "X" solar flare, the strongest of solar storms, temporarily disabled many satellites, killed one satellite completely and and burned out an instrument on a Mars orbiter. The crew of the International Space Station took shelter, reporting elevated radiation readings and "shooting stars" in their own eyes.

September 2005- a string of "X" solar flares caused lesser disruptions to major power grids and knocked out the GPS system completely for ten minutes.

June 2011- a moderate solar flare caused minor satellite disruption, unusual amount of static on phone lines._

http://greekgeek.hubpages.com/hub/ma...lar-flare-1859 
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Below: I've already EMP-proofed my radio (I hope) by removing the batteries and wrapping it in a black plastic bag, then wrapping the whole caboodle in multiple layers of kitchen foil, because it'd be the only way of staying in touch with the world in an EMP-induced blackout.
The plastic bag is to insulate the radio from the pulse that's playing around the foil. (click to enlarge)-


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Eyeball said:


> I've saved a lot of survival hints and tips and stuff to my external hard drive for posterity, but I can't help wondering if a solar flare from the sun might wipe it.
> Same goes for disks that I've burned stuff to
> Shall I keep the drive and disks wrapped in kitchen foil or what?


Too many nebulous possibilities for me. Where is Slippy? That guy has a knack to figure stuff out.


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