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[OM] Re: Lexar 4gb CF Deal

Subject: [OM] Re: Lexar 4gb CF Deal
From: WayneS <om3ti@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:23:56 -0500
I once worked in the storage development of Digital, later Quantum,
and know a number of people still there. There was a well known
data rate loss due to bit decay related to temperature. The rate for
longitudinal recording was getting so bad, the disk drive would do
a periodic refresh, sort of like dynamic ram, to keep the data stable.

So, using a disk drive to store data, then power off and store, may also
not be so reliable. Vertical recording has improved things, but if you
want to preserve disk drive data, then store them in a very cool place.

I periodically buy new disk drives and copy all the data to the
new drives, in duplicate. 

I don't think there will be any electronic storage that will not require
periodic maintenance and constant migration of the data from older
technology to newer technology. Even if your blue ray disk has 100
years of life, the technology to access it will not. Just keep buying 
a new disk every few years, and copy all the data from 4 older drives
onto duplicates of two newer drives.

Besides, most of us on this list probably don't have much
archival life left in us either.

WayneS

At 03:25 PM 11/6/2008, you wrote:

> >That's 5% of flash memory that is being written to all the time for a
>>period of 36 months... a technology which has a known "wear rate".
>>That's much different than archiving after a single use.
>
>
>I was thinking the same thing, but we're talking about the firmware which is
>updated maybe once a year and a configuration save on-average of twice per
>month.
>
>Yet, using large-capacity CF cards as backups is intruiging, but the cost of
>real hard-drives has dropped so much that I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a
>few for putting into my bank safe-deposit-box instead of DVDs.  The DVD
>stack is over two inches thick and they are sealed in freezer bags
>
>AG


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