I was told, years ago, that there is no such thing as permanent storage
of media... not in printed form, electronic form, or archival media
form. For that reason, we are advised to archive our important
information in an organized way, and each time there is a change in the
media (as when Beta was obsolete and VHS won the game, or when VHS
became obsolete and DVD won the game...) we are advised to transfer our
"stuff" to the new media. So that means always staying on top of the
latest and greatest, and spending a lot of time on this.
For myself, I'm resigned to the fact that my fascination in something
will last about as long as it takes for something else to come along.
Therefore, I keep my video clips, music, and photographs on an external
back-up drive, and only put the files I want to share on a jump drive
(temporarily), or in my ipod where I can access them any time. I've
actually upgraded my back-up drive once (for something with a smaller
foot-print, much quieter, and much bigger capacity than my original
one), but that was a simple process. If and when this particular
technology is totally obsolete, I'll either figure out another way, or
will be too old to give a rip. I'd rather make lace than be a slave to
my files.
Clay
Louise Bailey wrote:
Dear Arachnes,
Susan has a good point about CD/ DVD stability. Many of us assume that these
are permanent media, seduced by the media hype when they first came out
described as indestructible.
>From a recent technology review
Quote:
Commercial DVDs are expected to last more than 50 years, assuming they are
pressed correctly on good quality media, and then stored in a cool, dark, dry
place. Heat, humidity, handling and atmospheric pollution are all believed to
reduce the life of optical disks, based on accelerated ageing tests, but nobody
really knows. DVDs that are burned separately, perhaps as backups, could last
anything from 20 years to 200 years. However, read-write (RW) discs should
never be used for archiving: they are not as stable and many may not last 15
years. According to a study by America's National Institute of Standards (NIST)
and the Library of Congress, some could last only two years. There's a summary
at The X-Lab:
http://www.tinyurl.com/yq97nf
Optical media are very variable, but Digital FAQ has published a brand media
guide. http://www.tinyurl.com/2u48l
Endquote
The cheaper R/W discs and some of the older CD writers produced a very shallow
burn onto the disk so their stability was very poor - anyone who has tried to
burn a Rewritable CD and then tried it in a car CD player and found it won't
play will have met this problem. If you have anything precious consider
checking that disks still read and make a second copy.
Of course old floppy disks and magnetic tape are worse still!
Regards
Louise
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