From the Sept. 2003 issue of
User Friendly, the Journal of the Los Angeles Computer Society:
Archival librarians have long
been wrestling with the implications
of storing important historical
documents on digital
media.
How long will floppy disks last?
A CD-R? A zip disk? Hard
drive? Tests by the National
Media Lab show that the best
quality CD- ROMs stored under
ideal conditions are expected
to last from between 50 and
100 years. Most zip drive owners
have experienced the
"click of death," signaling last
throes of a damaged disk or
drive.
Floppy disks are not certified
for long-term archival storage,
which is defined as more than
three years. If your records are
stored on floppies:
PRECAUTIONS WITH FLOPPIES
* Never allow anything to touch
the magnetic surfaces of a disk.
A fingerprint will leave an oil
residue and tiny scratches that
cause permanent damage.
* Always store 5.25" floppy
disks in their disk jacket, and
avoid squishing them together
in overloaded diskette boxes.
* Avoid high humidity environments
and choose a location at
room temperature, which is
free from fumes, dust and vibration.
* Avoid leaving disks in high
heat, such as parked cars or
mail boxes.
* With 5.25" floppy disks, fill
out the label before attaching it
to the disk. If the label is attached,
use a felt tipped pen.
Avoid using Liquid Paper on
disk labels, as loose particles
can cause surface scratches.
Paper clips can cause magnetic
corruption or come loose and
wiggle their way into the disk
jacket.
* Floppy disks are rated for
temperatures within the range
of 10 to 45°C. Continual temperature
fluctuations should
also be avoided.
* Magnets can destroy data.
Sources of magnetic fields include
battery chargers and
power packs, electric clocks,
computer monitors, modems,
printers, computer speakers,
telephones, radios, electric
typewriters, and magnetized
hand tools .
* Disk drives collect dust and
foreign matter, which can
cause surface scratches on
disks. Clean them.
OTHER MEDIA
These tips will serve you well
for almost any medium. Keep
your digital archives at a stable
temperature and humidity,
handle them at a minimum,
keep them clean, don't shove
them into dirty drives, don't
moosh them together and keep
them away from magnets.
To add another level of insurance,
keep all of your important
records in duplicate in
case a disk or tape fails, Even
better, keep them stored in two
different media, for example,
on a zip drive and on a CD
ROM.
Archivists sometimes "refresh"
their media. Every year or two
pull out all your archived material
and copy them onto fresh
disks. And, even though it
might not be apparent to the
naked eye, technology does
improve. Modern floppies have
better anti-static shielding.
Newer CDR's are less vulnerable
to corrosion.
After archiving your data,
check out the new disk to make
sure it works. Quickly check to
make sure the old and new
disk contain the same number
of bytes, but also open a few
files to make sure they are not
corrupted.
You've done your best to physically,
safeguard your disks, but
that's just half the problem. The
other challenge you face is
technological obsolescence.
Think back on Phil's master's
thesis. It was stored on a 5 1/4"
floppy. Do you have one on
your current computer? Probably
not! Some new computers
that come bundled with CDROM
bumers do not include
floppy drives at all. There are
many new storage technologies
hitting the market, such as
flash memory, smart cards,
Orbs, Jazz, LS120, Read-Write
DVD, magneto-optical drives
and pocket hard drives that
plug into a USB port. Will these
technologies still exist 50 or
100 years from now?
UPGRADE YOUR MEDIA
One solution is to "migrate".
your archives to new media
every time you upgrade or replace
your computer. If you're
like most people, that's every
18 months to 3 years. Pause for
a moment and pay attention to
the newest computers and how
they are configured. If you notice
a trend, such as new systems
shipping without floppy
drives, it's probably time to
consider a different archival
medium. Your floppies, Zip
disks, or whatever could be
ready for the great computer
museum in the sky. This is also
the time to inventory every archival
disk you own to make
sure it survives the migration.
