storage issue

News from around the world.
Post Reply
horze
Hacker in Training
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:33 am

storage issue

Post by horze » Mon Aug 30, 2010 2:57 am


User avatar
Cool_Fire
Not a sandwich
Posts: 1912
Joined: Fri May 09, 2003 1:20 pm
Location: 41 6d 73 74 65 72 64 61 6d
Contact:

Re: storage issue

Post by Cool_Fire » Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:32 pm

Interesting actually, we had a class that dealt with data preservation last year (it was a shite class, but I digress)
The point is that it is a problem to preserve vast amounts of data for extended amounts of time, but so far the curve of data production (valuable data, that needs preservation) doesn't exceed our ability to store and preserve. Though drives fail over time, arrays and redundancy can preserve data pretty much indefinitely.

Usually the biggest problem comes when you want to reproduce the data in it's original form after many years, and the applications that were used at the time don't exist or aren't compatible with current infrastructure.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

horze
Hacker in Training
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:33 am

Re: storage issue

Post by horze » Mon Sep 27, 2010 3:31 am

It is interesting that when we started to store information on technical devises instead of in some kind of paper format, people felt more secure that the information never would be lost. But if you can not reach it, it is lost even if it physically exists. So we went from a storage procedure where we could actually read information that had been written 1000 years earlier to a procedure where we have difficulties to access information stored less than 50 years earlier. As with everything else there will be a solution, but it is both an interesting phenomena and a bit funny. :lol:

User avatar
Cool_Fire
Not a sandwich
Posts: 1912
Joined: Fri May 09, 2003 1:20 pm
Location: 41 6d 73 74 65 72 64 61 6d
Contact:

Re: storage issue

Post by Cool_Fire » Mon Sep 27, 2010 6:36 am

Paper lasts a very long time when stored properly. The same is true for digital data tbh.
But papers lifetime is finite, no matter how well preserved, digital data can be moved to new storage devices pretty much indefinitely.

But if there is a language written on the paper that no one speaks anymore, you have the same problem as having it stored in a format that no application can read anymore.

horze
Hacker in Training
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:33 am

Re: storage issue

Post by horze » Tue Sep 28, 2010 2:22 am

You are absolutely right about that.

Post Reply