Date:Thu, 22 Jan 2004 14:43:04 -0500
Reply-To:Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:"Steven C. Barr" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:Re: Archive the hard drive, was CDR media longevity
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----- Original Message -----
From: "David Seubert" <[log in to unmask]>
> I may have mentioned this before in this forum, but the UCSB Library
stores
> its digital content on disc arrays from Wideband Systems that run RAID 5.
> We currently have 9TB of digital data in the Alexandria Digital Library,
> mostly geospatial data and air photos, but soon audio with our cylinder
> digitization project. Even with RAID 5, we have had a simultaneous failure
> of multiple hard drives, which required restoring the drives from tape
> backup. We have 40TB of tape backup and we also backup to the San Diego
> Supercomputer Center. Imagine what happens when the hard drive fails (and
> they will) and you don't have an alternate backup. It's gone.
It would appear that we have to be like the chap who wore both belt and
suspenders!
We know that storage media have a specific and non-infinite life span...we
also
know (I do, from bitter experience) that active storage media (i.e. hard
drives)
have a similar non-eternal expectancy. Further, we know that the original
information
usually is in a non-eternal form, even ignoring the possibility of disaster
(the
shellac record may be the closest thing to long-term indestructibility) In
fact, I
have seen a number of 19th-century tombstones that prove the fallacy of
"carved in stone!"
We could convert the data to digital form as accurately as possible, and
then store
it on both hard drives and CD-R or DVD-R, using each of the two as sources
for
regularm refreshing of the other. Alternatively, we could perfect shellac
DVD-R's...?
Steven C. Barr
