31 May
2000
31 May
'00
7:09 a.m.
The trick is to apply the solution that makes most
sense for today and
keep looking for new mediums to transfer the archive to. The best medium
I see now is redudndant living systems, and what I mean by that is having
the archives stored on a hard drive somewhere (connected to the internet),
preferably with RAID, and have mirrors of that site in multiple places.
This will allow for universal and immediate access. As systems die, the
archive is simply moved on to the next host.
Its nice to see someone sees the big picture here. Safety in numbers,
sort of. In a few years, a RAID capable of holding every bit (literally)
of classic computer software will be peanuts. As new computers are deemed
"classic" and more software will need archiving, the available RAIDs will
grow to accomodate, maybe even faster than the stuff that needs storing.
"NO WAY! There's too much out there!" you say. Well, my response is that
a terabyte is a lot of stuff. Ten terabytes is even more stuff. Do I hear
one hundred, or even the "p" word? I think you would run out of willpower
to keep reading tapes before the RAIDs get full.
Moving and syncing the archives properly is no big deal either - its a
well documented, well known procedure, and it happens all the time, quite
transparently. Every one on this list has gone thru the process - how many
people noticed?
The choice of medium is really unimportant, and as pointed out, kind of
silly when one deals in even a few megabytes (how much mylar tape is that
again?). Embrace this new technology - it really does work well. The old
technology just doesn't cut the mustard anymore.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org