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Data Storage

How to Keep Music for Forty Years? 96

Posted by Cliff from the tune-preservation dept.
Pinky3 asks: "I recently started digitizing my reel-to-reel music tapes. Most are thirty to forty years old (the first was recorded in 1964). How confident are you that the music you are collecting today will still be playable in forty years? What strategies are you adopting to keep your music safe?"
"I am starting to get worried about having all my music on one 200 GB hard disk. Like most of us, I have had a hard drive die on me in the past. At an Apple store last month a sad young man was in a panic because he had purchased lots of music from the iTunes Music Store while at work. He lost his job, so he made sure all his music was on his iPod. When his iPod died the next month, he lost everything (yes, he should have made a data backup to CD or DVD). At least when one of my tapes deteriorated, I lost only the music on that one tape. Will you be keeping a single repository or writing everything back onto multiple CDs? We all know to keep backups, but we also know that few of us do. Is all your music backed up? In my case, many of my tapes were backups of my long playing records, but they are gone now too.

Another issue is format, both physical and electronic. I am able to play forty year old tapes because I have kept the equipment needed (a 30 year old Tandberg tape deck). (Aside: after announcing that they would no longer produce tape, Quantegy was sold and has begun producing tape again. The initial announcement of the end of production was covered earlier on Slashdot).

I no longer have a 5.25 inch floppy drive, so even if I had kept old floppies, I wouldn't be able to get the data off. I am pretty sure that CDs and DVDs will not be the current media for music in 2045. Are you planning on keeping old players just for your music? Or will you copy everything onto each new format as it appears?

If you are keeping your music on a hard drive, are you ready to copy everything over to a new hard drive every four or five years? Also, what electronic format are you using? Are you confident that (name your favorite format) will still be supported in 2045?

Although I don't expect to be alive another forty years, I would not like to lose my music before I die."
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How to Keep Music for Forty Years? More

How to Keep Music for Forty Years?

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  • music == any other data (Score:5, Informative)

    by yotto ( 590067 ) on Friday May 27, 2005 @06:14PM (#12660028) Homepage
    If you want to keep it, back it up as many times and as frequently as you feel is necessary. For me, for my music, this means having it on two hard drives and a lot of it burned to CD.

    Do I plan on using these hard drives for 40 years? Of course not. If something better comes along I'll convert what I have now to the new format (Like how mp3s came along and replaced CDs for me, I converted the CDs that I liked to mp3). I'll do this as many times as is necessary until I kick the bucket, hopefully a bit more than 40 years from now.

  • Only one thing you can do (Score:4, Informative)

    by booch ( 4157 ) <slashdot2010@cra ... m ['k.c' in gap]> on Friday May 27, 2005 @06:15PM (#12660037) Homepage
    Copy it over to the latest and greatest technology available. That's about all you can do. Once it's in digital format, that becomes quite a bit easier; you can automate any conversions, and you don't have to lose any information. (No more loss of resolution due to multi-generation copies.) And copying from an old hard disk to a new one is simple. (I've copied my data from drive to drive over several generations of PCs.)

    As for backups, I currently suggest DVDs stored off-site. With long-term data like music, you really only need to make one backup, not every week or anything. Although you should test restoring the off-site backups at least once a year.
    • Uh, why?
      The CDDA format is 23 years old, a disk created 23 years ago still plays today. A file created with some off the wall PC format 23 years ago may or may not be playable. I think the only formats I would consider if it wasn't a physical CD are a CDDA .iso file or a collection of open format files (Ogg, Flac, MP3), because chances are very good that I will either be able to find something to play them, or worst case I can write my own =)
    • With some commercial quality DVD's having been known to "delaminate" [manifest-tech.com] after 3-5 years, how long would one expect a home-burned DVD to last?

      Longevity of CD-R's [mscience.com] has been studied, and a preliminary government study [nist.gov] of DVD-CD lifetimes indicates that you should keep multiple copies, check the media for errors annually and create new dups as bit rot occurs. This is also mentioned in this article [photo.net] on archival life for DVD's.

      There doesn't seem to be a single method that is known to last 20 years. Of note, op

  • Hard Drive Only (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mrami ( 664567 )
    Yes, I have been transcribing everything to HDD. Yes, I've been copying it from HDD to HDD (and I have a mirror on a different PC). And I store everything in OGG, so that I can at least play it if I have a C compiler.

    And given the fact that I can still find a SNOBOL compiler on the net, I'm assuming I'll be okay for a while (until my hearing goes, and then, oh well...)

  • Do it the Linus Torvalds way (Score:5, Funny)

    by mangu ( 126918 ) on Friday May 27, 2005 @06:16PM (#12660045)
    Get everyone to mirror your server
  • Just update over time. As 5.25 migrated to 3.5 people should have migrated (and backed up like crazy since those disks fail so often).

    Burn high quality CDs at slow speeds for deeper pits and backup on a couple of hdds, move it to new storage every 5 years or so and add the new stuff you've acquired.

    It's easier now than ever to backup but it is also as you said easier than ever to lose your whole collection. I keep 2 backups in a safety deposit box (along with my companies backup data) so I'm backed up in

    • Re:Not too difficult (Score:3, Informative)

      by Cuthalion ( 65550 )
      Burn high quality CDs at slow speeds for deeper pits

      This isn't how CDR media works at all. Instead of burning pits in the aluminum foil (which isn't how mass produced cds are made either; the substrate is injection molded w/ pits & lands and then the foil is mashed onto that rough surface) the laser's heat causes a state change in dye. (Reference [howstuffworks.com])

      The only thing burn speed really affects is mechanical precision.
      • Burn speed can potentially affect how successfully you copy your data, as different CD-Rs react differently to the choice of laser write strategy.

        In short, cyanine discs (often bluish-greenish in color) are reputed to handle slower burn speeds better, whereas pthalocyanine discs (often yellow or clear) are supposedly better at higher burn speeds.

        I realize that I've used lots of qualifiers in my comment, because frankly I don't have as much experience burning CD-Rs as many others, and your particular c
        • I should probably mention that I've never tried Memorex discs. I currently use Fuji 48x blanks.

          People don't seem to have mentioned the importance of taking care of your backup CD-Rs. Perhaps it's obvious, but CD-Rs should be protected from heat, humidity and light--the chemicals used in CD-Rs are somewhat light sensitive even after the disc burn is finished. Sunlight is especially bad.

          Oh, and microwaving your CD-R backups [bris.ac.uk] is not recommended either.
  • I'm sure I'll be transfering my important data to different media more often than just every 45 years.
    When cds came out, I moved everything off my floppies onto CDs. This made it more convenient. I could pop in one cd instead of looking through a ton of floppies for what I wanted. Same thing with DVDRs. I'm moving everything onto them to be more convenient. Deleting all the crap I don't care about anymore. As far as file formats, some I don't use anymore. I've usually found something better, and make the sw
  • And I've got records from the 50's which still get played.

    Personally though, I've just played a game of keeping multiple copies in different places, depending on how irreplacable the content is the more pearanoid I am about spreading it around.

  • Not too hard... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ForestGrump ( 644805 ) on Friday May 27, 2005 @06:27PM (#12660157) Homepage Journal
    When the data is lost, i'm sure iTunes and Visa will be there. And the RIAA will know what to do (take your money again)
  • I am using MAM-A (Mitsui) Gold archival quality CD's, and I make 2 copies. They are supposed to be good for at least 100 years.

    Every time there is a study on CD-R storage stability these test way better than all the others.

    MAM-A [mam-a.com]

  • Keep it in a lossless format (preferably as simple as possible. .wav is good for this). Keep multiple backups, at least one of which is in a locked off-site storage. Replace the locked offsite every few years with a new copy (to avoid media degredation). Feel free to keep a local cache in a lossy format so you can fit more on a disk.
    • Keep it in a lossless format (preferably as simple as possible. .wav is good for this)

      For most purposes, WAV is a waste of space. FLAC will cut those file sizes in half while preserving every single bit of data. The only time I use uncompressed waveforms is when I'm recording and editing. If all you're doing is playing them back, there's no reason to store your music as WAVs.

  • I've recently made the personal commitment to have multiple backups of all my important data, in multiple locations. I figure the key issues are automation and refresh cost.

    I'm using multiple Linksys NSLU2's, an embedded linux box designed to be an Bring Your Own USB Disk file server. Out of the box it only provides SMB file sharing, but mine are running the opensource unslung firmware [nslu2-linux.org] to give me full control over the system.

    I'm doing my backups via automated rsync over ssh, to multiple boxes in mult

    • What type of internet connection do you have at the different locations, how fast is it, how much does it cost to per month, and how long would a restore from a remote location take?
      • The primary data source site is at my office, which has a nice connection (175Mbps). A second smaller data source is at home, where I've got a cable modem. All "critical" data will be published to one of these two locations.

        One of the backup units is in my office, next to the source machine. Another is at home. Synchronizations to home aren't a big issue, syncs to work from home are slow, but I'm not concerned about the backup speed.

        In a "oops the drive in machine X" died situation, I should have a

  • Online storage (Score:2, Interesting)

    by slittle ( 4150 )
    Forget offline archives. Keep everything "on-line" ie. on an active HDD. When you upgrade your HDD, it's a simple matter of moving everything across & convert formats if something better has arrived (use lossless formats when dealing with the master copy of anything).

    The format and longevity of your backups is now not an issue. They only have to last one backup cycle. The physical medium doesn't matter, since if you can write the backups regularly, you can obviously still read them; when a medium s
    • With the view that your backups don't need to last in mind, you can now select a backup strategy. Simplest solution is a second HDD for first level, either RAID or periodic sync with a USB/FW drive, and DVD-Rs second level

      Amen. I just keep a second drive in each of my machines and rsync them every night or whenever the machine is more than 90% idle with the screensaver on for more than 10 minutes.

  • Avoid copy "protection" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Looke ( 260398 ) on Friday May 27, 2005 @06:48PM (#12660338)
    Avoid copy protected CDs and DRM encumbered formats like the plague. They're not worth paying for, because you'll never know for how long you'll be able to play them.

    Sometimes I wonder: What if I had to bring out my old 386 to play the music I bought 15 years ago? I'd feel cheated, but today people seem to put up with this. They buy DRM-ed files and copy restricted CDs which happens to work on most of today's equipment, but who knows with the computers and CD players of the (near) future? 15 years is not a long time, really, but computers have evolved immensely in that time.

  • Backups (Score:3, Insightful)

    by angle_slam ( 623817 ) on Friday May 27, 2005 @06:52PM (#12660365)
    I'll post what everyone else here has done: Backup the data! Right now, 80% of my collection is on two different hard drives. (The other 20% doesn't fit on one of the hard drives so is only on one hard drive). In the near future (next week), I'll be buying another hard drive and another one after that. Giving me 3 full copies plus 1 partial copy. Then, I'll keep copying it to the medium of choice as new technologies become available. In 30 years, it'll take about 3 seconds to copy an entire 40 GB iPod, so there'll be no reason not to transfer the info to the latest and greatest hard drive techonolgy (or whatever the replacement for the hard drive is).

    One reason why music can't be compared to 5.25" floppys is because the information is more important to me. I had a bunch of 5.25" floppys that I ended up throwing away years ago. But I didn't care about the information. (I didn't even know what was on most of the floppys). I care enough about my music to make sure that it gets copied regularly.

    Plus, my bet is that we are much more likely to see CD players 40 years from now than you think. Reason: backwards compatibility. Since there is so much info on 4.75" optical discs, it is foolish not to include the capability to read them, even as the storage changes. That's why DVD players play CDs and HD-DVD players will play DVDs and CDs. Just too much information, readily accessible and capable of fast and easy duplication (unlike 12" albums and cassette tapes) for the industries to junk them entirely, for probably at least 20 years. The next 20 years after that, you'll be able to find players (just like you can still find turntables that play 12" LPs.

  • To ensure the future readability of audio files, do not use a compressed file format (mp3, m4a, etc.). Use something that stores the raw data in its most basic form, so that interpreting it in the future will not be a challenge. The filesizes will be monstrous, but .wav may be the way to go.

    • Why not just store source code for a Vorbis decoder on the same disc? Or are you claiming that C and the machine languages in which compilers are implemented will become dead languages within the next 40 years? Heck, Fortran is still around.

  • Long Now Foundation (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The Long Now Foundation has done some thinking about these issues [longnow.org]. It appears that part of the solution is to engrave everything onto a 2" metal disk [rosettaproject.org].

    It might be pricey, but wouldn't it be worth it for your 400th great grand-children to be able to listen to your New Kids on the Block collection?
  • In case you find yourself having to recover info from old magnetic tapes (which have oxides that increasingly tend to flake-off over time), here are a couple of articles about baking tapes in order to restore the adhesion of magnetic particles to the substrate:

    http://www.josephson.com/bake_tape.html [josephson.com]

    http://www.wendycarlos.com/news.html#baketape [wendycarlos.com]

    The Wendy Carlos article is particularly interesting to me since it involves the soundtrack to the movie TRON.

    FWIW all the CDROMs I have from 13 years ago are
  • As many people have said, just copy everything to new media every time you upgrade, and always keep a backup or two that you upgrade also. It helps that every PC generation has 10x the hard disk space of the previous one.

    A different question is whether you'll be able to read the data. I think you should:

    1. Make sure there are open-source readers for any format you use (and keep copies of them with the data)

    2. If possible pick a simple format that you could reverse-engineer yourself in a pinch (e.g. XML
    • "3. Pick a popular format so that in 40 years everybody will have the same problem that you do, and you can be sure there will be a solution"

      Probably the best idea I've seen so far (apart from Multiple Redundancy).

      • Probably the best idea I've seen so far (apart from Multiple Redundancy).

        There should be a standard addendum tagged on to stories like this;

        Back up everything onto five different servers running a variety of RAID-5 configurations, including SCSI, ATA, and SATA. Burn everything on to six different varieties of CD-R and DVD-R media, storing each in a separate climate controlled off-site location. Store multiple copies scattered through your house and re-burn the entire collection every six months wit

  • I keep my music on hard drives, which I synchronize every now and then. In the coming years, I expect to copy stuff from IDE drives to SATA drives. Later, to whatever replaces SATA.

    As for the format, I would recommend FLAC: it is lossless, and open source. So this should last for long. If you see Flac starting to disappear, re-encode to another format, as long as the new format is also both lossless and open source.

    Sure, it's bigger than mp3 at 128 kbs, but hard drives are not so expensive.

    And of course,

  • But wait, (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Odocoileus ( 802272 )
    Since there are a limited number of songs in the world that everyone listens to, it would be more efficient for everyone to just pool their resources, and backup all of their music to a common area. Then we could use bit torrent to retrieve the files when needed.
    • Then I started thinking, if they would sell cd's with a unique number inside the label, it would be possible to do this legit'. The number would be used to register the cd in your name, and each number could, and need, be used only once, to eliminate fraud. Once registered, you have permission to download those songs, the record industry could even host the data.
      • Then, if they are going to host the data, why bother pressing the physical CD in the first place. Just sell the data via download...:)

        Topps [etopps.com] does this sort of thing with their 'limited edition' sports trading cards. You can buy a 'card' and they 'keep it in their warehouse'. You can buy, sell, trade [etopps.com], whatever. Yeah right. You are buying a row in a db, until you want it actually printed out and mailed.
        (I have no verification of this, but if I were the eTopps guy, that's what I would do. And that's what it lo

  • Paper...I open it up mp3's in notepad and click print

    One of these days i'll type it back in, and hit rename on that txt file
    • save yourself all that time tapingit back in, save it to paper tape.

      On a slightly more serious note, on of my college professors still ahs important data from studies on decaying paper tape that he has no feasble way to get digitize, and that was only about 10 years after he did the studies. (I said feasable, i know there are ways, but nothing too practiacl as i understand it.)
      • Just use some tool like automatic screwdriver to wind the tape in front of a webcam, then write a program to find different brightness of the holes. I am sure this guy [ipodlinux.org] will do it for a reasonable reward. But in any case, the analyzes part can be delayed for any amount of time after the video is made and archived.
    • Just use a scanner to get in back in the computer.

  • Too long term. (Score:3)

    by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Friday May 27, 2005 @08:44PM (#12661212) Homepage Journal
    The whole question is based on false premise. There's lots of media that's advertised as long term, but how do you know that you can find inexpensive tech to play it back forty years from now? You should plan on making complete copies of all your music (and other data) every ten years, just to make sure that it's in a form people still use. Then you only have to worry about finding media that lasts you ten years -- though to play it safe, you should add an extra decade safety margin.
    • The whole question is based on false premise.

      Bull.

      There's lots of media that's advertised as long term, but how do you know that you can find inexpensive tech to play it back forty years from now?

      Well, the OP is still able to play 40 year old tapes on his own (already paid for) equipment, so it's patently obvious that there is extant low-cost equipment that plays his 40 year old media.

      • Re:Too long term. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by fm6 ( 162816 )
        So if you have hardware that can handle a medium now, you're guaranteed to have that hardware 40 years from now? Many people with their data stored on 9-track tapes, punched cards, 8-inch floppies, and other such stuff would beg to differ.
        • Straw man fallacy: I never used the word "guaranteed".

          OP cares enough about his music to keep a reel-reel tape player in functioning service.

          Organizations with data on 9-track tapes, punched cards, 8-inch floppies, and other such stuff who were too short-sighted to either (a) migrate the data, or (b) retain the capability to read the old media are now reaping what they've sowed.

  • silly old people (Score:3, Insightful)

    by St. Arbirix ( 218306 ) <matthew...townsend@@@gmail...com> on Friday May 27, 2005 @10:35PM (#12661849) Homepage Journal
    How confident are you that the music you are collecting today will still be playable in forty years?

    A better question: How confident am I that I'll actually *want* the music I'm collecting today to be playable in forty years?
    • If you're not sure about that, then you should dump the shit you're listening to and find some quality music.

      • It was a joke.

        My music is in my hard drive. For safety I attached a cable leading to an external hard drive where I keep copies. For even more safety I attached a second cable leading to a DSL router. And if that doesn't work, well, what else are friends good for?

        I may be a damned optimist, but I fully expect to be able to find someone who has whatever I lose should the worst happen to my local copies.
    • "A better question: How confident am I that I'll actually *want* the music I'm collecting today to be playable in forty years?"

      Well, much if not most of my favorite music is in the 40 years or older category.

    • That's preposterous. Everything that's cool today will be cool forever, like "All your base are belong to us" and "Wassssaaaaaaaaaaaap?".
  • Your query is a subset of the problem discussed by Bruce Sterling's Dead Media Project [deadmedia.org].

    Basically, you should transfer to new formats as they arise.
  • Ha! Sure DVDs, CDs, multiple hard drives, the web and so forth may be 'convenient', something will surely happen eventually. The answer is to go back in time, back before transistors, back before magnetic tape! I'm talking flip flops made out of relays. Buy a bajillion relays, and bit by bit, transfer all of your music on to them. Use some early form of error checking to ensure you will still have it should one or two die.

    That or go buy some punch cards or write the song down bit by bit and write the

  • I always thought it was a mistake thinking in term of having the data in a vault somewhere. It is more like a dynamic process: each time you get a new storage technology, you just copy the data on it. There is no question of perennity, I stil have my 1990s files.

    The two remaining questions are: failure of the technology you are currently using, and file format. For the former, just triple the backups IN DIFFERENT PLACES (think about fire, tornadoes, flood, angry ex-girlfriend) I personally backup all imp
  • Analog tape has its advantages. The technology is relatively simple and high-quality tape can last for many decades if stored properly. You can still get replacement heads, although you might cringe at the price. A tape transport could be built from scratch for much less money than more technologically sophisticated devices. Many old tape transports were built to last. I know of many that are still in daily use, even though they were purchased in the 1970s.
  • Just post torrents to it.

    You'll be able to retrieve it any time you want from the gazillion people who downloaded it.

    Course you'll have to lie low from the RIAA for a while.
    • No no no. The problem with bittorrent is precisely longevity. Torrents tend to die off within a few weeks. A better solution (and one that I am planning) is to first store all your music in a lossless format like flac or ape. I prefer ape just because it compresses a little better at the highest settings. Then release each CD onto the ed2k network (with either Emule or Edonkey). Once it is widespread enough it should take on a life of its own and be self sustaining (and thus downloadable) for probably 6 mon
  • How about a RAID 1 with all wav files?
    • its doubtful that those hard drives will survive for forty years, or that you will be able to get a replacement for a failed HD in even twenty years (and one or more will certainly fail in that time). So you'd still end up having to upgrade that RAID array as a whole every decade or so at minimum...
  • Ask yourself the following question every three years, fourteen times:
    "How to keep music for three years"

    This means:

    • Moving from a 3 year old device/media to a new device or media (always!)
    • Converting to a new unDRMed, lossless format if necessary
    Compare that to museum artifact maintenance, which require regular upkeep and ideal storage conditions. I you care about your data you must maintain it.
  • If it's really important, just save it to a wav and keep your hardware. Save it on a hard disk and keep the computer. You can always get the analog signal back that way, and all you have to do is hold on to the computer. Machines 20 years from now may not recognize the drive, so you'll need the original machine, and wav is lossless.
  • What I've been doing with my school report backups: GMail them to yourself.
  • I have basically two kinds of music: music that I really dig, and the music that is more on the temporariry basis on my collection.

    The music that I really dig is of the kind I could listen to in say 10 years.. maybe in those 40. Maybe 50 % of that music is known enough that I could be able to rebuy it somewhere in World now or say in 10 years. That music exists in various backups: CDs, DVDs, 3-4 hard drives, backupped on my bf's HD as well. And some of the music that I really, really, like has been also CD
  • Convert it to base64, and post it to Usenet. Rely on groups.google.com to keep it around forever. If you are worried about the copyright police, encrypt with pgp before conversion to base64.
  • Even if you no longer have the means of playing your music, whether it be off of reel-to-reel or a CD (at some point in the future), there will always be ways to transfer formats.

    Just like some camera shops maintain a side business of doing VHS and DVD transfers of old 8mm film, there will be companies that will do the same thing with music and obsolete video formats in the years to come.

    However, if you'd like to avoid paying someone, I recommend capturing everything to your HD in whatever your favori
  • Various-capacity drives using this technology have been around for a decade or two, and each new generation has been backwards compatible with all the previous generations. (Just decide if you want 5.25 or 3.5 inch; the current 3.5 format is up to about 2.3Gb per disk, drives run around $300, and the removable disks are maybe $20 each, depending on vendor. The technology itself is based on a natural phenomenon that geophysicists use to determine the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field millions of ye
  • For, I dunno, 60 years, people have been dealing with the safe storage of music; you are neither alone nor is this a new problem, and finally it most certainly is not a problem without a solution. If you want to, it can be done.

    Now, we need to get one thing straight right off the bat. You might be worrying about what digital format to use. Personally, I'm not going to wade into that much except for some sage advice: use a commercially viable format. In other words, RedBook CD players will be around in 50 y
  • You are too optimist.

    I started to buy CDs in 1992, now some of my oldest and favorite albums are already starting to fail. I can't rip some tracks any more.

    Today I own more than 2.000 CDs, more than half of them are out of print. I'm starting to digitalize my collection, so I can have access to it later. My plan is:

    1. Rip everything with cdparanoia and a plextor cd player.
    2. Encode them as mp3 vbr and using lame extreme preset.
    3. Correctly tag the tracks (there's a lot of typos in freedb, specially due to

  • Library of Congress' advice for preservation (Score:4, Informative)

    by Mikito ( 833242 ) on Sunday May 29, 2005 @02:08PM (#12670907)
    The Library of Congress [loc.gov] has a webpage that details how to preserve all sorts of collections. Many of us have extensive collections not of just music but also books, photographs, etc., and preservation can be just as important as duplication.
  • This may be a silly idea given the kinds of error correction already on a CD, buy what if you convert to lossless flac, split everything up with rar and add some par archives to the cd. Each par archive can recrete one missing rar archive, so if one gets hosed on the cd, it won't matter. I guess you could burn the data twice, but if both pieces get hosed in both locations you're done. What I don't know is if CDs and DVDs can go out in spots w/o affecting the rest of the data integrity. I'd expect them to, b
  • I started converting all my CD's to MP3 a few years back, and I haven't gone back to the originals since I stored them a couple of years ago.

    Encoding in the same format and having an organized directory tree keeps life simple also - Artist->Album>Tracks. I started encoded @ 192, and decided to switch 320kbps about a year ago.

    Going with something very openly accepted makes life easier. Everyone does MP3, but a lot of people are really down OGG. (Perhaps someone below me can go more into OGG and

  • 100 year storage? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by lpq ( 583377 ) on Monday May 30, 2005 @04:02PM (#12678186) Homepage Journal
    Just saw this on a Flash-RAM [all-windows.com] site:
    Flash technology can allow you to store information indefinitely (over 100 years) without the need for a power source.
    You didn't mention "price", in your desire for long term storage solutions, but there is hope for NV-RAM prices to come down in price (eventually) and replace Hard Disks in some computers... [slashdot.org]

    -l

  • The way of the Do-do (Score:3, Informative)

    by g0bshiTe ( 596213 ) on Tuesday May 31, 2005 @12:30PM (#12684948)
    As music formats, medium, ad nauseum goes the way of the Do-do, I imagine you will have to convert between new formats. Take mp3 for example, how many of us convert from mp3 to ogg? This will not change if you should wish to preserve them. I am quite sure you will no doubt hold on to your r-to-r for acoustics you just can not reproduce. Some will claim you can not tell the difference others will swear it isn't the same. Grab a remastered copy of Billie Holiday and have a listen vs. an LP. Some is enjoy the crackling and popping of an album.

    As for your issue about backing them up, by all means do. If you have to convert between the new file formats I think it is a small price to pay in order to preserve your music. As for the electronic back ups, I suggest a raid array to prevent hd loss, this may seem extreme to some people, a raid just to preserve music. Though if this guy has taken this much care to maintain his collection this long I am sure he would go the extra mile. Also with harddrives as inexpensive as they are now, and most newer motherboards supporting some type of raid out of the box, you could bring this to fruit for a few hundred dollars.
  • How confident are you that the music you are collecting today will still be playable in forty years?

    Find yourself a shellac disk, and cut the audio waveform into the surface of that disk.

    I have a 78rpm version of this archive method that was created in 1910, and it still plays the music just fine.

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