Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/12/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 2003-12-30 <jcb@visualimpressions.com (JCB)> thoughtfully wrote: > >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. > I have to say that you may have overstated the problem with regard to hard disk drives. Floppies are very vulnerable, as we all know, and user-writable CDs have problems as well for the same reason that Ektachrome has had: the dyes fade. However, hard disk drives, while operating at a high bit density, also use magnetic materials suitable for long-term storage. I'll have to do some research - but I know that I have hard drives 10 MB ones, that can still be read by my RT-11 system and they were written in the 80s. I have shifted to storing all digital media onto hard drives I mount on a Weibetech system connected via FireWire 400. This system seems solid. The on-disk structure isn't likely to vanish and, if it does, I will be able to copy from the old to a new file system on a substantially larger drive as the technology improves. Adam - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html