Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/12/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 12:33 PM 12/30/2003 -0800, George Hartzell wrote: >Marc Attinasi writes: > > The best advice I have heard was from Reid and it is to store backups > > on hard disks. IDE hard disks are cheap and extremely stable. For a > > mere $50 you can snap them into a USB or FireWire enclosure, store the > > images (or audio, in my case), and then remove them from the enclosure > > and file the drive away. [...] > >If you're using an enclosure this way, you might want to look at the >DriveDock stuff that Weibetech makes. They're naked, and made for >easy on&off. > > http://www.wiebetech.com/home.html > >g. Don't forget that a hard disk IS magnetic media. Magnetic media decays over time. A hard disk, even if stored in a perfect climate controlled environment, will exhibit magnetic bit rot. As of right now, today, there is nothing digital that will store files, music, or photographs, as long as analog media. File folders in file drawers, LP/45/78 records (not analog tape), and film. All current digital media dies over a relatively short time period as compared with its analog counterpart. And, don't forget that technology changes may make that digital media that you stored away today, unable to be read back tomorrow. I still have some double sided 8" floppies with files on them. Neither do I have an 8" floppy drive (Shugart 851) nor would the data still be there if I had a drive. Likewise with the 5-1/4 floppies that I have. I have a 5=1/4 drive but at least 25% of the floppies are unreadable because of magnetic bit rot. Just be aware of the potential future problems and plan ahead. JB - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html