cross-posted from: https://lemmy.eco.br/post/4492477
How to store digital files for posterity? (hundreds of years)
How to store digital files for posterity? (hundreds of years)
I have some family videos and audios and I want to physically save them for posterity so that it lasts for periods like 200 years and more. This allows great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren to have access.
From the research I did, I found that the longest-lasting way to physically store digital content is through CD-R gold discs, but it may only last 100 years. From what I researched, the average lifespan of HDs and SSDs is no more than 10 years.
I came to the conclusion that the only way to ensure that the files really pass from generation to generation is to record them on CDs and distribute them to the family, asking them to make copies from time to time.
It’s crazy to think that if there were suddenly a mass extinction of the human species, intelligent beings arriving on Earth in 1000 years would probably not be able to access our digital content. While cave paintings would probably remain in the same place.
What is your opinion?
Do you really think you are going to find a working CD drive in 100+ years? Try finding a working 8" floppy drive and a computer that can interface with one. They are only 50 years old and it’s quite a task to read an 8" floppy now.
Data has to be transferred to new media as it becomes available if you want to keep it and be able to read it decades later.
As long as it has a USB-A port, I think it will be good. We can’t seem to kill that one. ;)
yeah but the CD keeps being backwards compatible with DVD players, then Blu-ray, then UHD Blu-ray… these new 125tb discs are the same form factor again. i think we’ll have CD players way longer than tape decks
I think CD is more or less at the end of its livecycle, most PCs sold today don’t even have a cd drive anymore.
They haven’t had any kind of drive for a while now. You know what does though? Game consoles.
Sure, but getting the data from the disks through a game console sounds pretty not fun.
The point is that even if CD or DVD drives aren’t produced nearly as much, there is still a market for newer drives that still support CDs and DVDs.
Sometimes I scrounge around bargain tech and I see a vga port (is that a serial port? I can’t remember) or the green/purple ports for a mouse and a ??? (keyboard???) and I am blown away because I forgot they existed. And do you remember that big fat fuckin’ port that you put a printer on? Cause I remember having to undo, redo, undo, redo that fker a hundred years ago because it never seemed to connect right. But I can’t even tell you WHERE I was messing with that. Maybe a library. I just remember it because it was the size of a harmonica (but not really).
Long term storage requires an ongoing migration strategy. The whole ecosystem for reproduction gone away your pristine media will be inaccessible.
@Clinico@lemmy.eco.br The M-DISC is your solution. Then just keep it in a cool dry place, airtight plastic bag if possible, and it will last longer than people will remember you.
Also, make sure to store a **desktop **computer in an airtight container next to your disks. If you have spare cash then get backup parts for the computer and keep them in their factory anti-static bags. No GPU needed, get a CPU with an integrated GPU.
Finally, in my opinion, information survives longer when it’s wanted. Get a big monitor, slap it against a wall, plug in a mini fanless PC, and have a random slideshow running during your waking hours. Let family add to the living slide show, teach them how to access the family NAS drive, show them how to access the archival disks in the basement, show them how to make new archival disks as they generate data to add to the family archives of house Clinico.
I’d just keep a couple different copies and then copy them every 5-10 years, or as new technology comes along. Maybe something like this will be available for consumers in the near future.
Time to crack out the ol’ microfische reels again for the photos.
I seem to remember an article about long term storage using quartz crystals from a few years ago, but I could be misremembering that
LTO tapes might fit the bill.
Core rope memory?
Memory density is about 2.5MB per cubic metre, might need to buy a warehouse to store it.
From what I researched, the average lifespan of HDs and SSDs is no more than 10 years.
Is this running or not running though? I think a bunch of flash chips, properly stored, would last quite a while
Flash chip cells are basically tiny electron traps, they consist of a tiny stored charge surrounded on all sides by an insulator. When writing to the cell you fill it with some electrons via (much handwaving here) a method of quantum tunneling. You can then read the cell by sensing the internal charge without disturbing it.
When not in use eventually enough charge tunnels out of the cell via random quantum tunneling events for it to read nothing. This is worsened when things are hotter, so maybe keeping your flash chips in the freezer would help.
Consumer flash memory, I probably wouldn’t expect more than 20 or 30 years of offline storage out of it. The older chips would last longer, because their cells are bigger, and you’re not trying to read multiple charge levels per cell like the newer stuff.
Added edit:
Magnetic media probably has a higher chance of surviving longer. Floppies from the 80s can still be read, for example, but they are low density media. You’d want something that separates the drive system from the actual magnetic media to stop bearing or motor failure from being an issue , so tape would be a good idea.
The problem is, of course, that you could end up with media you can’t read as nobody makes the hardware for it. Tape drives have gone through a dozen revisions in the last 30 years as capacity has increased, but as long as you have the same physical tape cartridge you should be ok.
M-Disc is a blueray compatible media that doesn’t use dye and should have a life of hundreds of years. But who will have a blueray reader on hand in the 24th century? I’ve got a USB M-Disc compatible writer for my backups, but in 30 years will I be able to pull it out of a drawer and plug it into a USB Gen 15 port and have it work with whatever software I have then?
I think we’re going to have to do the manual duplication process for a while yet, until we finally settle on some universal petabyte storage crystals or something.
New SLC flash can store data for about 100 years when kept at room temperature. The data retention time will drop with write cycles though. Consumer SSDs use TLC or QLC flash, which is only guaranteed for 1 year of offline data retention, but it will probably be good for several years if it’s not worn out.
Where is this SLC quaranteed for 100 years.
SLC NOR flash often has a typical rating of 100 years at 25°C, but only 20 years at maximum operating temperature is guaranteed. These flash chips are a few megabytes or less and are used for storing firmware in embedded devices. They are often written once and expected to retain their data for the lifetime of the device without having the ability to automatically rewrite blocks that are loosing their charge like an SSD.
Eeeeeh, I guess flash would loose charge in a few years anyway.
How about archival-grade Blu-ray? Those could last over 100 years.
I use mdisc bluray
Printing flip-books for the videos and keeping that in essentially a time-capsule. With a vacuum if you can afford it. Not perfect but will definitely last for hundreds of years. Look at the Magna Carta for inspiration.
For the audio, vinyl and kept in an even stronger container, instruct everyone to use gloves before touching it.
Print the hexdump of the file or qr code of the hexdump on paper. I store backups of my password manager db like this just in case there is a solar flare or some other magic bullshit that wipes all my pendrives/sd cards/CDs.
Or you could encode the hexdump to audio and press it into vinyl. But in this case, as well as the QR, i think, you’ll have to keep some physical backup (that isn’t encoded) of the decoding algorithms for QR or the audio, otherwise you just have some funky pixelart/bleepbloop sounds to enjoy but no data - if every other copy is gone… Well, you could spend the rest of your life trying to calculate it then?!
Constantly migrating your data from one storage to the next seems like the only real way.
Hardware solutions personally. . raise too many doubts. Like those “100 year discs”, that just screams untested/untestable.
