[BC] Digital Archiving

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

Write-once DVDs are not supposed to degrade at normal room
temperatures. It's the R/W ones that slowly degrade with time.

You want to keep them in sleeves of cases so that they are not
exposed to direct light for extended periods of time.

It is unlikely that a DVD drive will be unavailable in the next
10 years, but you could save one somewhere. Unfortunately,
you don't know what the interface will be 10 or more years from
now (SATA, ATA, IDE, SCSI, USB, etc...) Basically, you can't
expect to save digital data forever because there won't
be anything around to read it. I have zillions of VAX tapes
that can never be read, etc. They are only 20 years old!

No not expect that any kind of tape will last for more than
about 7 years. Write-once CD/DVD devices are the 2008
"way to go," but next year they'll be printing data on micro-
dots (or something), obsoleting everything. 

--
Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Read about my book
http://www.LymanSchool.org


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Andrew Skotdal <andrew.skotdal at krko.com>
> I have a mountain of data that is taking up server space that I may never need 
> again, or it may become mission critical in 15 years.  I've been told that 
> DVD-ROMs degrade after about 7 years.  So, here are my questions, assuming that 
> maintaining the data on live servers is not a realistic solution (and assume 
> that whatever you suggest, I would duplicate two or three times to insure 
> against any single backup becoming corrupted)...
> 
> 1.  What digital media would you select to off load your data for later use?
> 
> 2.  If your digital media selection is some kind of external hard drive, should 
> you worry that the connectors won't work with some future generation of PCs?
> 
> 3.  What is the ideal storage temperature assuming that it won't be moved until 
> it's actually needed?  Would you vacuum seal an external hard drive and freeze 
> it?
> 
> 4.  Should we hire a temp to print and organize hard copies instead and store 
> those?  Obviously, that creates a space issue, but it's important information.
>