Re: [AV Media Matters] Digitizing Audio and Video-ReallyBigPost

[eric@lab-tech-systems.com]

Hi Jim,

Drives are fragile mechanical devices which run at very high speeds and 
have complex servo systems.  Therefore, they are volatile in some 
respect or other.  Like any mechanical system, they are always in the 
slow process of destroying themselves.  Ironically, I've said for years 
that I'd love to see videotape go away, as tape machines are notorious 
for mechanical problems and media damage!  This is still true, but I 
have been thinking in terms of short-term storage for production 
purposes, not long-term archives.

Maybe I'm just stuck in a rut; it is hard for me to imagine some kind of

huge disk-based server spinning away in a vault somewhere holding the 
primary archival version of some important content.  It just seems too 
non-real.  I dunno... Is this really any worse than storing this stuff 
on a digital tape format that might be unplayable in 50 (or 10) years? 
Perhaps not, but making sure the data stays intact requires a different 
process.  If nothing else, the level of vigilence and expertise required

to maintain a disk-based archive would be higher, I think.

I guess I'd prefer some kind of non-volatile RAM device that simply 
holds the bits in a fixed pattern indefinitely.  Crystal lattice 
storage...?  <grin>

-- Eric



Jim Wheeler wrote:

> Eric
>
> The three largest manufacturers of HDDs are Seagate, Maxtor and
Western
> Digital.  All three of these companies have spent a lot of time and
> money
> increasing the reliability of their HDDs.  They have solved the head
> crash
> problem and the bearing problem.  I am not aware of any other major
> failure
> mechanism.  They all use auto-tracking which I invented in 1976.
>
> I have been attending Storage Trade Shows and Conferences and have
> learned a
> lot about HDDs and LTOs.
>
> All archives must develop a plan for making backups of all electronic
> media
> and storing them off-site.
>
> Jim Wheeler

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