Re: [ARSCLIST] Archive the hard drive, was CDR media longevity

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Grete,

I am not yet convinced. I'm starting to become convinced, but not completely.

I would consider storing something like the Maxtor USB/Firewire drives on the
shelf, but I, too, like the idea of optical media at least for backup.

I believe the industry is addressing long-term-storage issues. Although older
drives have problems in that regard, I believe those problems have been solved.

All discs depend on an operating system to read them, so that is no great
benefit of data CDs or DVDs over hard drives.

If I were storing on hard drives, I'd probably buy a Maxtor and a Western
Digital for each set of data...although Hitachi is great, too.

I would probably want to use the USB cases and keep the interface simple and
the fragile boards and mechanisms of the drives protected.

I mention USB as it is becoming more pervelant than firewire and the cases tend
to be a bit less costly. I think some of the Maxtor products are really cost
effective and good. I have had really good luck over the last ten years with WD
and IBM/Hitachi drives as well.

I still like to pull out a CD and listen on a walkman if need be.

If you're archiving to HDs the asset management system needs more development.
With CDs, the tray card contains adequate metadata in some instances.

With files, the directory structure and filename convention can also be self-
documenting.

So many different directions and decisions!

Cheers,

Richard
--

Richard L. Hess
http://www.richardhess.com/


Quoting Grete Pasch <gpasch@xxxxxxxxxx>:

> Konrad Strauss wrote:
>
> > I believe that the trend is to move away from CD-R as a
> > carrier to a file-based storage. Most archives cannot
> > afford to put together an online storage system, but
> > if you have a digital audio workstation of some sort,
> > you could start recording to firewire drives and
> > archiving the drives themselves.
>
> The fireware "cases" are not cheap, so one would presumably store
> just the hard drive itself, packed in a plastic shell or some
> sort of protective box.  Still, hard drives are so fragile that I
> would be worried not to have a copy on DVD or tape just in case.
>
> But has anyone had any experience archiving hard drives?  Will
> they work OK after being in storage for months?
>
> -Grete
>
> --
> Grete Pasch - Directora -  www.newmedia.ufm.edu.gt
> U. Francisco Marroquin, Guatemala - (502) 3387875
>