Article on data rot on CD's

[chris]

>in a
>fire-safe case (yes, I realize it wouldn't help except in
>the lightest fire)

Depending on the case/safe/cabinet, it may actually help quite a bit. 
They are generally rated to 1200 degrees or higher for 45 minutes or 
longer. If you have a 1200 degree fire for 45 minutes, then your house is 
a total loss. A fully involved room doesn't usually get to 1200 degrees 
(flashover will usually happen around 600-750 degrees depending on air 
and flamability of the items in the room).

However, many MANY people make the mistake of putting their fire 
resistant safe in an upstairs bedroom for easy access. That will likely 
cause a failure much sooner then its fire rating. Why? Because as the 
structure burns, the floor weakens, and now you have a 100+ pound weight 
sitting on a burned, water soaked, weak floor. It tends to break thru the 
floor, and not stop falling until it hits the basement two stories down. 
Usually the impact will make the casing of the safe fail and either pop 
the door open, or totally destroy the outer shell. In either case, the 
fire rating has been removed, and the contents will now happily burn.

Are these types of boxes/safes the best option? No, but they are better 
then using a rubbermaid container or a regular file cabinet. For truely 
important paperwork, a safe deposit box is probably the best option 
(although they are very rarely fire rated at all, but the safes always 
have fire suppression systems in them, and seal air tight, so the odds of 
a fire getting very large is pretty slim).

-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>