9 Oct
2005
9 Oct
'05
3:45 p.m.
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:
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
On Sun, 9 Oct 2005, James Fogg wrote:
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). 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.