Re: [ARSCLIST] Is recording to Reel-to-reel still the preferred preservation method?

[Siue Moffat <bk913@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There's more of this digital vs. analog archiving debate on the AMIA
listserve if anyone is interested, including storing digital on
polyesther film...

Siue

----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Fial <ron@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Friday, October 1, 2004 8:45 pm
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Is recording to Reel-to-reel still the preferred
preservation method?

> Regarding the use of hard-drives for archival storage:
>
> I have had considerable experience deploying and servicing hard
> drives over the last 25 years, starting with platters that were 14-
> inches in diameter.  I use Mitsui gold CD-Rs for archival storage,
> I do not rely on hard drives.
>
> I would not recommend leaving any hard drive sitting un-powered for
> more than a few months.  Regular rotation is desirable to keep a
> distributed lubricant coating on the drive bearings and wipe away
> any rust/corrosion products that are beginning to form -- this
> keeps the polish on the bearings.  It also distributes the
> platter's surface-lubricant coating to decrease the chances of the
> motor freezing on startup due to head-to-surface sticking-friction
> ('stiction').  If a drive has been unused for some time, be sure to
> bring it up to room temperature for a hour or so before starting it
> up, or even for a day or so if the drive was stored at a cold
> temperature (e.g. garage in winter).  Run it for 10 minutes before
> using, preferably an hour after its operating temperature
> stabilizes.  The drive will self-calibrate during this period.
>
> There is no way that occasional 'reading' of the data will protect
> against self-erasure.  The best way to keep the drive readable is
> to re-write all data every six months. Ideally, you should 'image'
> the drive, or else re-partition, completly re-format, then write
> the files, so all sectors are written.  The longevity of the data
> is a function of time and temperature.  Disk surfaces and heads can
> have considerable variation.  Most of the sectors will be OK for
> years, but some will be marginal.  Most modern drives contain
> software to report drive 'health'.  There are free programs to read
> out this information.
>
> If the drive works to the extent of a less-than-3% warranty return
> rate, the manufacturer ships it.  Some companies have done a lot
> worse.   SCSI drives cost more, but are built with better bearings,
> motors, etc. designed for a longer MTBF (Mean Time Between
> Failure).  Some IDE drives can be had with this higher quality.
>
> Drives are now available with a 'calculated' MTBF of  500,000 hours
> (about 60 years).  This means that if you have 60 drives running,
> one will be expected to fail each year.  It does *not* mean any
> single drive could run for 60 years!  All drives have a design
> lifetime.  Even sitting on the shelf, the bearing seals will go
> bad, the surface lubricants will dry out and the connectors/wire
> contacts will oxidize.  You cannot count on the 'better' drives for
> more than 5 to 7 years.
>
> The earth's magnetic field is too weak to have any effect on the
> data.  The coercivity of the magnetic coating is too high.  The
> residual magnetic fields from the computer's cold-rolled sheet-
> metal frame and from the drive's pancake-motor drive coils is many
> times higher at the location of the platters, and they will not
> have much effect either.
>
> If your drive does not work after being stored in a working
> condition, do not mess with it.  Take it to an expert.  You can
> recover some drives with just a light tapping or surface-spinning
> (frees the heads), or a freezer-bag cold-soak (dry air, no
> condensation) then a recovery startup.  Sometimes only the
> controller electronics are bad.  But if the data is critical, you
> send the drive (plus a few thousand dollars) to a drive-recovery
> company.
>   Regards,
>    Ron Fial
> _________________________
> At 12:32 PM 10/1/2004 -0700, you wrote:
> >Hi All,
> >
> >I have three Maxtor drives on my current system, two of which I
> use for
> >redundant backup of my .wav files.  I called their tech support
> and ...
>