X-Message-Number: 5561
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 1996 10:24:51 -0500
From:  (Ralph Dratman)
Subject: Re: CryoNet #5558 (Re: Data Storage)

>This can only be avoided through (1) storing complete data on the format
>in the same safe as the media, and (2) copying to new media whenever the
>old becomes obsolete.  An interesting article on this problem appeared in
>Scientific American recently: Rothenberg, J. Ensuring the longevity of
>digital documents. Jan. 1995, vol.272, (no.1):24-9.

Another, perhaps stronger strategy for ensuring readability of old data is
to include a complete computer with the applicable operating system, media
reader, printer, etc., tested and ready to boot up, all in the safe. The
equipment should use gold for all connectors and contacts and/or be stored
in a nitrogen atmosphere, because non-gold connectors slowly oxidize in air
and build up resistance.

This sounds rather expensive, but if the costs can be divided up among
several storage archives, it's probably not too extreme. Then you only have
to worry about the availability of AC power at 60 Hz if you want to be a
stickler for detail. I suppose you could include a suitable DC-to-AC
converter; it seems safe to assume that DC power will never be very
difficult to locate, unless electricity is no longer used as a medium for
power delivery.

Even with this strategy, someone should be assigned to transfer the
contents to new, up-to-date media every, say, five years. That up-to-date
media should be stored in the safe, but the original media should *never*
be discarded. No reader for the up-to-date media need be archived, since
the format will be continually revised for then-current equipment.

I am writing this "off the cuff", but something similar would be necessary
for real continuity, I think.

Ralph Dratman



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