Re: [ARSCLIST] Hard disk drives and DAT

[Karl Miller <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

When I think of the current state of things (as per Tom's note below) I am reminded of an act that appeared with some frequency on the old Ed Sullivan show. One of the "tricks" was to keep a number of plates spinning at the end of a stick. You were always kept in suspense thinking that one of the plates would slow down and eventually fall off the stick. Somehow I see that as a great representation of the job of those would manage (preserve) large data files. 
The problem is, that we keep adding more plates to the trick...Just as we have a formula for the theoretical limits of storage, I wonder if there is some equation which will describe the point in time when we no longer have the resources to keep the plates spinning and one by one they all fall down. 

Karl

Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: I hope Richard and/or Parker and/or Spec Bros. jump in here. The ONLY answer is managed and 
constantly migrated storage. You simply cannot live by the old "put it on a shelf in a clean, cool 
room" idea anymore. Digital storage must be in constant motion -- literally since hard drives have 
been known to fail or never start up again if left idle on a shelf (ask around Hollywood, everyone 
has a horror story or two). You have to plan to have a "living" hard drive array that is redundant, 
preferably with a constantly mirrored clone at a different location, and plan on swapping out drives 
every XX hours of use or at worst when they inevitably fail. There are firms that do this on an 
out-source basis, I think. I believe the 90's dot-bomb term was "storage farms." Some of them are 
actually located in old bomb shelters and missle bunkers.

-- Tom Fine