Archival storage

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Re: Archival storage
>   From: Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org>
>   Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 15:39:22 -0500
>     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>Vintage Computer Festival declared on Sunday 09 October 2005 03:12 pm:
>> On Sun, 9 Oct 2005, James Fogg wrote:
>> > Does anyone know if there are optical formats that can reliably
>> > deliver 10 year shelf-life? How does one achieve it (different types
>> > of cd-r chemistry, using cd-rom, etc)?
>>
>> Just use hard drives.  Cheap, high capacity, and reliable.
>
>And make sure you keep them spinning, so that you can tell when they 
>fail, along with a redundant copy on another machine which you mirror to 
>periodically (even automatically once every N days is fine).  Migrate to 
>newer media when the old stuff is pretty much obsolete.
>
>If you manage to do that, your data will long outlast any CDRs that you 
>store in a filing cabinet next to the computer(s).

I've done that exactly.  The oldest of the lot is a ST506 from 1982 that 
still runs CP/M and still has stiction since day one!  Other than the 
need to give it a manual twist it's been relaible.  Of course that data
is backed up to a newer Quantum 31mb (AKA RD52) and thats been backed
up to a newer 45MB SCSI and a newer still 52mb SCSI and so on.  Along with
8", 5.25, and 3.5" floppy copies and those on the PCs where that process 
sorta repeats itself it would be hard to create a total loss.

The key is many copies, in many places and at lest a few on current
or reasonably current media.

Allison