Re: imaging software--disk dupers/MDISC etc

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

> But what storage material is good for ten years?


In my experience, all of them are--from 5 1/4 floppies on to contemporary
media. However, they aren't *reliably* good for ten years. So the
solution for that is redundancy. I think the least reliable media I dealt
with was the 3 1/2 inch "stiffies." And even there, it was just
that they got stuck and wouldn't spin fast enough (I think).



> Robin Harris was
> one of the first to publicize
>
> http://www.mdisc.com/
>
> which is producing the world's only archival recordable DVDs, with
> archival blu-rays on the way.
>
> Maybe it's a mistake to believe in anything, but mdisc seems the
> only sensible choice now available for those of us who are serious about
> preserving our data indefinitely. 

If you want safety, wouldn't it work to buy 10 hard drives and do to all
10 what you're saying to do with one? It seems inconceivable that all 10
would fail (and in the same sectors) and I think hardware to read hard
drives will be around for at least 30 years (and you could buy 10
computers now that can read them). With prices so low, buying 10 isn't
insane now.
I take 10 to make a point. I would think 4 would be more than
sufficient.

Just an idea. I'm not pretending to be a storage/backup expert.