Mark Blackwell wrote:
I am not sure anything digital can really be truly archival. We have seen just how computer technology changes. We might write the data to 100 hard drives, but what good would it do if hard drives are replaced by some new far superior technology in a few years. Everything would have to be transfered that that often does not happen. How many of you have a computer that still has a slot for 3 1/2 inch floppies??
All my computers still have 3.5" floppies. I've got a couple of 5.25" drives around, and have transferred data with them in the last few years. But that's all beside the point -- which is that my actual data on floppies was transferred years ago. (Good thing, since floppies don't last very well.)
Digital media aren't wonderful for "benign neglect", but they're wonderful for an actively managed archive. The ability to make a perfect copy is magical for archiving; you can protect things against levels of disaster no other approach really has a chance of surviving.
-- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@xxxxxxxx; http://dd-b.net/ Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/ Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/ Dragaera: http://dragaera.info
