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MMD > Archives > September 1997 > 1997.09.26 > 06Prev  Next


Life of Digital Data Media
By Dan Wilson

Neil Rosenberg said:
> And there's no risk of losing your favorite music
> because of degrading/aging paper.

Err, no, but rolls last 70-80 years (looks like 120-150 here in UK) and
floppy discs no more than 7 for sure, unless you refresh them.  I heard
somewhere - urban myth maybe - that someone has measured the magnetic
degradation on different computer diskettes and estimates data is safe
for only:
              years
  5.25" DD      4
  3.5" HD       7
  Zip/Jaz      20

It's conditional on how good the reading heads are.  I have a laptop that
can't even read freshly-recorded diskettes properly.  I have to copy a
file onto disks several times under different names and try each one.

And this is without any wear and tear.  Do you have facilities for
re-recording the piano files ?  Maybe a CD conversion is the answer.

Dan Wilson

 [ We're all concerned with archiving the fragile music rolls and books,
 [ so this is an important topic.  Is data available on the estimated
 [ life of other media, such as video tape and the different types of
 [ recordable CDs?  -- Robbie


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

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