On Fri, 15 Mar 2002 16:11:12 -0500, "Ward, Stuart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >In the very near future I will need to put together a software and hardware >proposal for data retention of approximately 50 years due to FDA >regulations encompassing the medical industry. > >My main question would be the type of media to use currently that has any >kind of magneto retention life-span nearing or surpassing this.
Since no known media has magnetic media lifespans of 50 years, your best bet is an environment that promotes moving files from one media container to another on a periodic basis (with consistency checking to insure good copying), so as to avoid the situation where sticktion, dirt, media failure, or disaster causes data loss. It should also allow for concurrent connectivity to different media types, allowing for gradual or immediate migration to new media types as technology changes and improves. Again, this connectivity should allow for consistency checks when moving from one type of media to another. Also, the system should allow for easy automated restoration of data from media storage to staging systems so that administrators can accomplish another major problem of technological advancement--filesystem evolution. Restored data from old-style filesystems, such as FAT, could be easily migrated to newer filesystems like NTFS. Such migrated data should be easily moved back onto fresh storage media. Hey. Didn't I just describe TSM? -- Mark Stapleton ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
