30 Mar
2000
30 Mar
'00
5:56 p.m.
OK, I've got a wierd question now. What is the
lifespan of Magnetic Media?
In this case, I'm concerned about 4mm DAT, but since I'm more familiar with
8mm it as an example.
The real reason for the question is finding some 4mm
tapes that are still
sealed, and I'd estimate about 8 years old.
Archival life is one of those statistical things. It has to take into
account sun spots, Roger rat taking a nibble, and the general river rising
sort of problems. My point being, a significant amount of failure will be
due to some sort of 'accident'. The only audio cassettes I have ever lost
were eaten by mean tape drives, and I have a number of 25 year old
cassettes I listen to still. OTOH I was mortified to hear that perhaps some
of my recordings on reel to reel Ampex 456 tape that I spent a fortune on
may now be starting to fail after the same time period.
Prudence suggests important data needs to be stored on several different
media types and in several different locations.