Jim said: > street_samurai Wrote: >> If something truly terrible happens: fire, theft, "act of god" then at >> least you still have your original CDs which you could re-rip. They are >> the ultimate backup. >> ss. > > But are they? > > One of the reasons I often wonder about when to seriously start backing > my stuff up is because CD rot is not just a CDR/CDRW related thing. > Read up about all those 80's and early 90's produced commerical CD's > that are now rotting !!!
It all repends on how long a vision you have for your backup. For a really long term view, you have to periodically put the data into a modern format, and then write it out to whatever looks to be forward looking. Fifteen years ago, I backed up my critical stuff on QIC 40MB tape. Then 1 GB DAT tapes came out, so I used them. Then a few years later, 4GB DAT tapes, then a few years after that DLT. You have to expect that the physical media will deteriorate over time. More importantly, the drives become obsolete. If you have 8 inch floppies, I am not sure that anyone can read them. Even 5-1/4" floppies have been unreadable in my house. Hard disks are probably useful for 3 to 5 years, if the data is valuable, you really have to move to new drives periodically. Its an engineering and budget question, more so than technology. The only reliable long term storage is permanent ink on acid free paper. That can last a thousand years or so. Pat http://www.pfarrell.com _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
