Immortalising Data

Markus Antonius

While I fully realise that we don't live forever, many of us will live for a few more decades at least. What I would like to know is what is or what could be the most secure method of immortalising our most treasured files?

Before I go on, I do have everything backed up in the cloud, but cloud storage is not a 100% guarantee. They have data loss too, and chances are - they won't be around in a few decades time. I would preferably like something physical that could be stored away in a safe and forgotten about with peace of mind that it will always be there when I need it.

Back in the 90s, I remember some scepticism about CDs and how well they would last in the long term. Remember bringing your optical disk into the shop to have it "cleaned" for a fee? They would spray some chemical on it and put it in a glorified lettuce dryer and spin it around to "remove the scratches"

Up to that point floppy disks were the business. Recently at work we had to pull up some old floppy disks from the 90s and amazingly they still held the data perfectly. Can we expect the same from HDDs or solid state drives? Only time will tell.

Another thing that got me thinking was reading an article about how to keep your private crypto key safe. The best method appears to be hammering your code into a piece of steel so in the event of, god forbid, your house burning down you would still have it.

So what is the steel hammering equivalent to keeping your most treasured few GB safe to see us out? Floppy disks? CDs? HDDs? Some kind of high capacity Vinyl storage?

Best to have this discussion now before it's too late...

Gary Scrod

Zip disks seem to be the way to go.

Sy Kick

Entropy and chaos gonna take it all.

Markus Antonius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117735767#Comment_117735767

Haven't heard of these. I must look into them.

One thing I forgot about was Filecoin, which is a blockchain-based storage system in which you pay to have your data stored and verified on a chain of validators who get reimbursed for holding your files.

Definitely something I will look into more as it could develop into something bullet-proof

Edit: I see Entropy appears to be similar in nature to Filecoin

Sy Kick

😀 I think you're having a little joke.

But for the record no information is 'immortal' as you have it in you question. All organised systems eventually descend into disorganization.

Unless a hypothetical mind of God. Or universal conciousness. The akashic records.

Or a zip disk. That's write protected. And stored in it's original sturdy plastic case.

Esel

TL/DR

Markus Antonius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117735941#Comment_117735941

It weeded out your contribution which I could foresee being 10 questions on what my motives are

Markus Antonius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117735836#Comment_117735836

Well coincidentally enough "Entropy" appears to have been an anonymous form of P2P data storage which piqued my interest:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_%28anonymous_data_store%29

Capt'n Midnight

Tape can last 30 years or longer if stored correctly. Mildew is not your friend. Good luck finding a working 30 year old tape drive that's aligned. Then good luck with the software, and fingers crossed on the drives firmware, and stuff like Microsoft changing backup compression algorithms multiple times. For uncompressed data you could use Linux to dump the whole tape to a file and do data recovery on the file.

If I can find one I must check if an old 20MB IDE hard drive can still be read with a USB adaptor. That's probably as old a media you can go unless you already have an old USB floppy drive or old PC that can take a legacy drive, and again good luck with head alignment etc.

Capt'n Midnight

To backup data forever you need multiple copies and provide a way to read it. Back when the BBC had the money to be technical their Doomsday project was obsolete after 25 years. And it was full data recovery/panic mode. Had the data been stored on IDE drives it could easily have been recovered.

For a DIY project for one or two thousand years you could look at paper that wasn't made from acid and print out (laser printer carbon not inkjet) something that could be scanned back in. You'd need lots of redundancy in case of bookworms and lots of instructions and pictures.

For 10,000 years look at https://longnow.org/ , https://rosettaproject.org/ ,

This is cool , if you had a reader The storage allows unprecedented properties including 360 TB/disc data capacity, thermal stability up to 1,000°C and virtually unlimited lifetime at room temperature (13.8 billion years at 190°C )

As for Zip drives ? Contagious click of death :(

Markus Antonius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117739521#Comment_117739521

This is exactly the kind of info I'm looking for. Those 5D glass disks look like an incredible technology. Maybe one day they will be commercially available..