Re: Safest long terms archival media?

Kaptain Apokalypse wrote:


"Kaptain Apokalypse" <apokalypse561@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Qe3Cg.6451$f31.3003@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello everyone. This is my first post to the NG so apologies if this has
already been covered. I did a quick search here and didn't find anything
similar.

I wonder what this group's views are on the best long-term data storage
media is? In my particular case I would like to archive digital images
and documents, of which I have many thousands of.

I suppose the cheapest and easiest way to archive data is CD/DVD however
I do not know how reliable such media would be over a period of say 20+
years. Is this dependant on the quality of the CD/DVD media, or is CD/DVD
not a reliable long term storage solution? What about USB memory sticks?
The 2 gigabyte sticks are fairly cheap at the moment, but do they offer a
safe and long-lasting storage solution?

Your advice would be appreciated as would any suggestions for more
reliable data storage methods.

Mike.


Thanks to everyone for the advice so far.

To answer a couple of questions, the data I wish to store amounts to only
around 8 gigabytes, and I don't expect this to exceed around 10-15gb so
it's not a huge amount.

For 8 GB, a DLT drive would be a good bet. DLT has a solid track record
going back 30 years and you can get 10/20GB drives in good condition dirt
cheap on ebay (they're super high quality drives that generally get on ebay
because they're no longer large enough for corporate storage, not because
they're dead). Write to three or four tapes and put them in different
places including sending one to your auntie who lives several thousand
miles away and you should be covered for just about anything short of
global thermonuclear war.

Magneto-optical is another good bet but you're talking more expensive drives
and media.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
.

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