media life (was Re:When will the persecution of MS *end*?!)

[Henry Spencer]

On Sun, 21 Dec 2003, Scott Allen wrote:
> > That day is a long way off, but I guard the floppies that constitute 
> > the shred of hope that someday I'll get those files back !
> 
> If you haven't already, you would be wise to make duplicates of those 
> floppies, and also burn images of them to a CD-ROM. Floppies lose their 
> magnetism over time and thus have a shelf life of ~10-20 years. They 
> may no longer read when you get around to trying to use them...

Brace yourself:  the shelf life of a burned CD-R or CD-RW is likewise
uncertain.  The archival librarians don't consider even CDROMs (real
factory-stamped ones, not user-burned disks) to be an archival-class
medium, because of concerns about the longevity of some of the materials
used in them. 

If you want to be sure you will always be able to read something, there
is no substitute for making a fresh copy every 5-10 years.

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org

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