cross-posted from: https://lemmy.eco.br/post/4492477
How to store digital files for posterity? (hundreds of years)
How to store digital files for posterity? (hundreds of years)
I have some family videos and audios and I want to physically save them for posterity so that it lasts for periods like 200 years and more. This allows great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren to have access.
From the research I did, I found that the longest-lasting way to physically store digital content is through CD-R gold discs, but it may only last 100 years. From what I researched, the average lifespan of HDs and SSDs is no more than 10 years.
I came to the conclusion that the only way to ensure that the files really pass from generation to generation is to record them on CDs and distribute them to the family, asking them to make copies from time to time.
It’s crazy to think that if there were suddenly a mass extinction of the human species, intelligent beings arriving on Earth in 1000 years would probably not be able to access our digital content. While cave paintings would probably remain in the same place.
What is your opinion?
Microfilm Is basically the only method that will work until the end of this planet when stored properly. Governments usually store important data on microfilm in deep bunkers.
Btw, a HDD technically can last forever as the stuff is physically written into the plate. The problem is accessing the data.
Magnetic tape drives are also a idea, they are slow and all but basically indestructible, same goes for the reader. You “just” need to make shure you have a adapter XD
And no, CDs are not the longest lasting. If you want to store shound forever, vinyls are your friend.
Digital storage is hard to preserve, make stuff physical if you want to have ot in many years.
HDDs aren’t written physically onto the plate. They flip magnetic fields. Anything relying on magnetic fields to store data is going to have a lifespan measured in decades, at best.
It tells that you have no fucking clue. The magnetic writing is physical. And i have drives older than you that still work fine. A HDD disk lasts technically forever when keep inside its Faraday cage (outside the magnetic storms from the sun could damage it), the problem is the part that needs electricity to keep stuff stored, wich is the most important part when you want to access the data, as it contains the information about where what is stored, without that you would read a shit load of 0 an 1 but without actual meaning (its technically possible to compose Coherent data but its in short basically gambling with disadvantage)
lol a drive continuing to work for 10 years doesn’t mean that you could write to that drive, and have it sit in a drawer for over 10 years without the data getting corrupted.
Did you read? The data corruption comes from the controller dieing, wich is exactly what i said. This isn’t the disk itself, its about the (basically) SSD that stores the data about what is where on the disks and the firmware necessary to access it.
Not true the charge in the cells also leaks so it well eventually become corrupt. You can see it in running SSDs in sections that are not written to a lot. The data sits there unchanged and the SSD has to do error correction and it slows down the drive.
Yes, the controller dies slowly but the HDD disk itself remains unchanged. The corruption comes from the dieing controller wich is because the controller dieing means the plate looses the information about where what is located on the disks.
did YOU read? we were talking about HDD
I talked specifically about the disks itself, not the HDD in general, the HDD contains a SSD wich needs power to stay alive.
My point was that the plates themselves will keep the data forever unless they are exposed to strong magnetic interferences (earths own magic field isn’t really a problem as its pretty stable, it’s mostly bringing other magnets close or having them exposed in a solar storm wich would cause actual damage to the plate)
I don’t think I’ve had a conversation that felt so much like Reddit on Lemmy until just now. when stored at a non-absolute zero temperature, magnetic discs are subject to thermal relaxation, even if they’re kept at a steady temperature. besides the fact that you’re going to pretend like we weren’t specifically talking about the HDD plates, I’m not continuing this conversation because holy shit you’re just trying to be frustrating
Highly presumptive on many fronts, as well as conflating the ability to reliably write with the ability to read data over the same time span. So, tell me of the connector on this hard drive that you have that is older than me. And what do you use that drive for beyond as a curiosity?
13 year old hard-drives aren’t that uncommon you know…
And there’s that presumption. Just like the idea that a Faraday cage will block a magnetic field such as the earth’s. And unless your suggestion is that the poster just has to store his archive on the moon or farther, it will still be subject to influence from another magnetic field. And everything I’ve read puts bit rot at about 1% per year, which means, even with aggressive error correction about 50% of the archive will be lost within 70 years without an active refresh of the media. That’s not what’s generally meant by archiving. If it was, we would be talking about a process and a commitment by third parties to keep some random person’s archive intact for a century, unless what you’re really trying to suggest is that the real trick to building an archive that will last over a century is to live even longer?
Are you insane? A Faraday cage protects against magnetic fields and other interferences, thats why they exists, the earths magnetic field is no problem btw, its actually protecting our shit because ot keeps most of the magnetic Solarstroms away from our electronics.
It was also just a fun fact type of info, as its impractical, the data may be there but access will be lost in the near future, that was what i said as well. I suggest microfilm or vinyl. Nobody is going to take care of the stuff after you die anyway.
(btw you could pay say AWS to keep your archive forever, as long as Amazon exists it will be ported and always accessible, paying after your death would be a problem however…)
I think microfilms plastic properties arent guaranteed past about 500years
If stored correctly it does.
doesnt vinyl poison you?
No. Its just a problem in the production process, when done wrong it can be a problem for the environment. But besides that, no, you can even eat from it.