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Archival Media for Digital Data
By Ray Finch

Using a Compact Flash Card for archival storage is an interesting idea.
However, since these cards were designed with the idea that a person
would be transferring pictures from a digital camera to a PC and then
reuse the flash card, I would be a little bit leery about storing
important irreplaceable data on them.

10 years ago everybody thought that writeable CDs were the way to go
for long term storage.  It was thought that CDs would last forever.
It is only just now that libraries and other archival organizations
are finding out that CDs (even factory pressed music CDs) sometimes
wear out from oxidation after about 10 years.  I think at this point,
like the CDs 10 years ago, there just isn't any data on the long-term
reliability of flash cards.  Will your files still be there in 5, 10
or 20 years?  Who knows?

I like what another poster said while back about paper with holes.
Paper will still be here in 100 years.  To bad it's not practical to
back up my hard drive to paper!

Ray Finch
Albuquerque, New Mexico


(Message sent Tue 24 Jan 2006, 07:12:34 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Archival, Data, Digital, Media

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