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Interesting thread.

I do believe long term data storage (20+ years) is a problem in need of a solution.

I recently experienced file corruption on a 10 year old Seagate HDD which barely had any use, so I would have to agree that HDD is not reliable over decades. If you go to Amazon reviews and sort by lowest score you will find many anecdotes of HDD's failing. I say this having just bought a couple of 8TB WD Blues for long term storage, so I am not biased against HDD at all. I just don't have a lot of confidence in them if we are talking about 20+ years. I think about 10 years is the longest I would have confidence. There are too many tiny little parts with fine tolerances, including stuff on the controller board. It's only as strong as its weakest link. One of my older WD Blues has visible rust on the controller board and makes clicking noises sometimes, so I had to retire that one.

Whether M-Disc is good in theory or practice, remains to be seen. Easy to have a design that "should" work in theory or lab conditions, only to have the OEM's screw up the implementation. I like the idea of M-Disc though - shows they are aware of the issue and that we want to be in control of our information. Storing the discs in an airtight lightproof container with a dessicant bag might be the way to go.

It isn't clear to me what the future of optical drives are. Using optical media for long term archiving of data seems like a poor choice at this point since optical drives might've effectively disappeared in 20 years.

I think of Zip drives as an example. In the 1990s they seemed to be everywhere and provided seemingly a lot of storage. Now, 25 years later, you might find an old Zip drive in someone's closet or on a dusty shelf in a used computer parts store, but that's it. If you have data on a Zip drive, it might be marooned there.

How we store electronic data changes. It changes relatively quickly. I think if you want to keep data for a long time you have to accept that the work is continuous and never ending. You're always moving the data onto the next thing, even if that next thing is a newer hard drive (or a newer optical disc).

dcoke22 wrote: Sat Aug 26, 2023 6:47 pm It isn't clear to me what the future of optical drives are. Using optical media for long term archiving of data seems like a poor choice at this point since optical drives might've effectively disappeared in 20 years.

I think of Zip drives as an example. In the 1990s they seemed to be everywhere and provided seemingly a lot of storage. Now, 25 years later, you might find an old Zip drive in someone's closet or on a dusty shelf in a used computer parts store, but that's it. If you have data on a Zip drive, it might be marooned there.

How we store electronic data changes. It changes relatively quickly. I think if you want to keep data for a long time you have to accept that the work is continuous and never ending. You're always moving the data onto the next thing, even if that next thing is a newer hard drive (or a newer optical disc).

Fair point.

Perhaps a new kind of memory cell technology with a USB interface could work. It could be a "write once" type of cell that gives it longevity and economical advantage.