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Re: [ARSCLIST] Storing digital media
On 09/05/06, steven c wrote:
>>
> Actually, computers themselves (which is what "servers" are) have an
> essentially unlimited life span (barring power surges, lightning
> strikes, nuclear explosions, etc.), since they have no moving parts.
But they do have capacitors and often batteries on board. Both of these
can degenerate.
> Hard drives don't, since they DO have moving parts...but I would
> suspect their life span is better measured in hours of use...so
> that drives whose primary function is archival storage would probably
> have extended life spans. Also, I don't imagine there would be any
> substantial difference dependent upon whether the drives were internal
> or external.
>
> The important thing would be to have one drive dedicated as the C:
> drive for each archival computer...and NOT to use that drive for
> any archival storage, since it gets some use whenever the computer
> is operating.
The system drive is only called "C:" in Windows and MSDOS.
>
> It might also be best to duplicate the contents of drives if the
> archives are to be regularly accessed for any reason...one could
> serve as a backup of the contents and thus see minimal use. The
> only advantage to external drives would be that one could be
> absolutely sure the backup drives saw minimal use!
>
> Just as a guide, I'm still using an old (about 20 or 25 years)
> 286 machine I bought a decade ago for $5, and it still works
> fine, as does its single (40MB) drive!
Regards
--
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx