CDs themselves only last 100 years at most. Hard drives also fail. There really isn’t a great solution for something permanent unless you are changing its form/format every so often
CDs don’t last that long. I had a buddy that worked for a radio program tell me that the tapes lasted a lot longer. This was mid 2000s and he was already seeing failures. I think they were fairly early adopters, but still it couldn’t have been that long.
Hard drives fail more often than another computer component, at least the old-timey spinning hard drives. SSDs are better by far but I wouldn’t trust important files to any single hard drive for long term storage.
Optical discs don’t have that problem at all. They will be good as long as you keep them in a non-hot place out of bright lights. Heat and UV light and scratching are the enemies of optical discs, but they can all be avoided for as long as you care to keep them safe.
Tape has been around for 80 years now and doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Copying to a fresh tape once a decade should keep your data safe.
CDs themselves only last 100 years at most. Hard drives also fail. There really isn’t a great solution for something permanent unless you are changing its form/format every so often
CDs don’t last that long. I had a buddy that worked for a radio program tell me that the tapes lasted a lot longer. This was mid 2000s and he was already seeing failures. I think they were fairly early adopters, but still it couldn’t have been that long.
Right, that is what I meant by “reformatted to keep up with technology”, including copying it to new hardware that’s less likely to fail.
Hard drives fail more often than another computer component, at least the old-timey spinning hard drives. SSDs are better by far but I wouldn’t trust important files to any single hard drive for long term storage.
Optical discs don’t have that problem at all. They will be good as long as you keep them in a non-hot place out of bright lights. Heat and UV light and scratching are the enemies of optical discs, but they can all be avoided for as long as you care to keep them safe.
Tape has been around for 80 years now and doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Copying to a fresh tape once a decade should keep your data safe.