Bit Rot?

[JamesD]

If there is anything you want to keep, make backups. That's the only way to be sure.

[karokoenig]

I wonder what they base that assumption on? How do they determine any rate of decay? What brands of media? And what is pretty soon?

 

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20040614211040/http://www.oit.umass.edu/publications/at_oit/Archive/fall98/media.html

[Keatah]

Nope <Laughing> That article didn't address any of the questions like how the rate of decay is determined, brands used, or any testing and measurement procedures.

 

But to its credit, it's a good layperson's read and has tips on usage and storage. Tips I would recommend to others.

 

In my official testing though, a bedroom-stored box of floppy disks is so far going on 35 years. Box in a baggie and it works!

 

I do like the part where they talk about entropy and complexity. This is one of the reasons why the Disk II subsystem is the best among all the classic computers. Disk II drives contain the least amount circuitry among all the 8-bit machines' disk drives. And the disks don't need relatively exotic chemistry to do their job. They're low density! To store a modern DSLR JPEG, you'd need 3 or 4 boxes of 10 diskettes!

 

I also like how the article mentions technical obsolescence due to availability of machines to read the media. This is where data migration comes in. People don't like doing backups. What makes anyone think migration will be any better. It's not. It's worse.

[fiddlepaddle]

...I also like how the article mentions technical obsolescence due to availability of machines to read the media. This is where data migration comes in. People don't like doing backups. What makes anyone think migration will be any better. It's not. It's worse.

except usually one or two new media holds all of your stuff from a bunch of the older media (ie, all my CDs fit on one hard disk now); that's the saving grace.