From: Greg Schmitz (gws1@columbia.edu)
Date: 10/20/03-12:13:26 AM Z
First a correction to my previous message on this subject. I was
probably wrong in my previous post to discount dark cold storage of
CD-R media. Since CD-R technology uses dyes in addition to the
metallic substrate, lower temperatures would probably reduce the rate
of dye fade. That said, there is still the issue of the mirror
material which would benefit from an atmosphere (or lack of one)
capable of protecting it from damage.
Yes Judy, hard drive prices have dropped substantially and have
replaced optical media for some common uses. Unfortunately, magnetic
storage is not all that stable either. Short of creating some sort of
physical record such as a glass master (for optical disks) or printing
out digital records in an optical form, say with a monochrome laser
printer (which is very permanent - like a carbon print), I am not
aware of any good long term digital storage medium.
BTW, since you mentioned Zip disks - I threw away (can you believe it)
3 Zip drives and an Iomega Jaz drive this weekend. Personally, based
on experience I wouldn't trust my data to any of Iomega's "disk like"
products.
-greg
On Mon, 20 Oct 2003, Judy Seigel wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Oct 2003, Greg Schmitz wrote:
>
> >... A better approach might be to
> > store the archived CD in an evacuated container or a nitrogen
> > atmosphere; Kodak sells/used to sell a heat seal-able pouch
> > specifically for the cold storage of photographic materials.
>
> My feeling is that for us mere mortals such extra technical hurdle would
> more likely mean not backing -- My own "backup", beyond the zip drive, is
> hard copy, at least for text, tho I realize that's not much use for
> graphics... But aren't there portable hard drives that hold a lot? They
> would also have the advantage that they can be filled in increments,
> meaning you could back often.
>
> J.
>
> >
> > In the meantime here's a link to Cool's Electronic medium page, perhaps
> > you can find some useful information there:
> >
> > <http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/electronic-records/electronic-storage-media/#optical>
> >
> > Best -greg schmitz <gws1@columbia.edu>
> >
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 11/05/03-09:22:18 AM Z CST