Re: Best data archival media?

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 23:40:44 -0600, David A.Lethe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

>On 17 Nov 2003 18:27:02 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (idunno)
>wrote:
>
>>I was wondering if you gurus could share some impressions regarding
>>the best media type for data archival.  In particular which media
type
>>would you trust for archival of important data you wish to take
>>off-line >10 or 15 years.  Would you suggest tape like DLT or some
>>optical disk or MO?
>>
>>I'm asking for impressions because, at this time, no one has 15 or
20
>>years experience with, say DLT IV.  While capacity, price, speed are
>>important to decision making, I though I might start out to ask for
>>just general reputations and strategies.
>>
>>Thanks
>You're not thinking this through.  
>
>No matter what media choice you select, then chances are good that
the
>device will be obsolete long before that.
>
>Just choose whatever works today for you, and rotate the media to the
>current technology every few years.
>

Well, that's very sound advice.  And I have been operating that way. 
I was wondering two things.  First which media type ppl had the most
confidence in as far as shelf life?  Secondly, if confidence in a
media was high enough to extend the amount of time before rotation.

10 or 15 years is admittedly a very long time.  While it perhaps an
overly optimistic time frame, my thinking was that it might not be
totally impractical to start some discussion.  If, for example, there
was someone that has been using MO for almost a 10 years and not only
do their original media work as good as new, but current MO seems to
have the same or better quality, I might have some confidence in
getting into MO with the idea of leaving data on disks in storage,
instead of 2 or three years maybe 5 or 7 years.  I find there is often
a great discrepancy between the theoretical performance values and
real-world experience.  Sometimes gut feelings and anecdotal
experiences can be very helpful.

Unfortunately I think you are right, that the only way to ensure that
data is retained is to actively maintain it.  Realistically there
probably isn't any way out.