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

[Ron Fial <ron@xxxxxxxx>]

>If they are running, but not being accessed, would that be best for longevity?

If the drive is not being accessed, it is better if the drive is off.  However I would not turn the drive on and off more than once or twice a day, since the head-sliders have a lifetime of 10,000 or more starts/stops.  Each time the drive stops the sliders have to settle down on the drive surface, and there is a slight chance for damage.  The temperature cycling is not so good for the drive either.  (Some tiny drives used in MP3 players are made for constant start/stops).

If you will be turning the drive off for most of the week it is best for the drive to be in a removable cartridge holder.  You power down the computer, turn off the drive with the circular key, then power on the computer again.  But the 'archive' drive would be safer if it was removed from the electrical environment of the computer  -- bad power-line stuff happens.

There are 'hot-swap' cartridge holders available that let you remove the drive without turning off the computer.  But your operating system will probably crash unless it has some sort of disk 'un-mount' command (e.g. UNIX/LINUX) that you use before you power off the drive.

You should not rely on a single hard drive for critical archival storage (yikes!).   A reliable 'backup/restore' system can be built using multiple drives with redundant information and off-site storage.   But the information is constantly being changed/renewed so I do not call that 'archival' storage.

  Regards,
     Ron Fial