Data Archival - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

8 Dec 2000

The key ingredient here, is that the data are stored on several
hard drives...as I replace hard drives, there is a folder in
each called "archive", which collects the info from the previous
hard drive...and this archive folder is also copied to other
computers via the lan.

I wound't trust anything to only one copy, be it on a hard
drive, floppy, cd, tape cartridge, or even a book stored in the
basement   :)

Jim

Sellam Wrote:

...
  On Thu, 7 Dec 2000, J Forbes wrote:

  It seems to me that nowadays we buy new hard
drives with a few
 times more capacity every year or two.  We also have several
 computers, many networked (at home, this is).

 I think that we may just keep all the info on hard drives, with
 an occasional CD-R backup, and it will get duplicated so many
 times over the years that we would be hard pressed to lose any
 data.  
 And then one day the box it's stored in gets bumped a little too hard, or
 when you try to fire it up in ten years something on it blows, or...?

 I can think of worse ways to archive data, but I wouldn't want to trust
 anything long term to a hard drive.  Unless you kept the data "alive"
 meaning you kept it stored on a computer that is constantly being
 backed-up and in service.

 Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival 