archiving data, was RE: Media Longitevity/Care

[der Mouse]

> However, I find that media is much more sturdy than these discussions
> would indicate.  We tend to gripe very loudly (and rightly so) when
> poor quality backup media takes our data with it.  But what about all
> those times we go back to our old backups and thankfully find what we
> need?

In this vein, I recently dragged out an old Sun QIC drive to read a
friend's tapes.

The tapes must have been written something like 15 to 20 years ago,
probably taken moderately but not especially good care of since then,
and I can't recall any problems.  (It was only several tens of
megabytes, so it was no problem to shovel it around today once I had
the bits on disk.)

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