I second that. We should do a survey and get reports from actual data archives - how do they do it, how much is the budget, etc. Also how much of the rules they follow regarding redundancy and data migration! For instance, how does the Internet Archive do it? I assume they have had to have gone through at least one data migration from their older drives...<br>
<br>I am convinced the most efficient way is storing data in mass on redundantly backed up drives (two copies of the same drive, stored in different locations, one is never used until migration is required or source drive malfunctions) and particularly important data is backed up to optical disc (currently most cost effective method is DVD-R, at least until Blu-ray becomes $1 a disc or comparable GB/$ ratio). Storing data on Hard Drives means they can be accessed fairly easily and data can be migrated in large quantities and accessed fairly rapdily - unlike magnetic tape. I'm not sure if tape is easier to recover from than a broken hard drive though, but HDD recovery is very expensive. Obviously when Blu-Ray discs become cost-effective, you can back up entire drives with Blu-Ray (just set some grad students or interns to work on it in the lab, as it takes awhile :P). Drives will also likely have to be formatted in NTSF as Linux and now OSX can read (and write to!) the drives as well as its native Windows.<br>
<br>If anybody has a better idea for how to do it, let me know, but this is the best I can think of in terms of compatibility.<br><br>In terms of drive size, 750 and 1TB drives do exist, but the larger the drive, the less stable. If anybody can find a lot of SeaGate 160GB for dirt cheap, that might be the best method.<br>
<br>Here's a list of current prices on Newegg. the most cost-effective is Seagate 750GB, though Western Digital makes cheaper 160GB drives (the recommended size for largest size vs stability). You can probably get them in bulk for cheaper from the manufacturer. It appears that SATA is the format to go with because A. you can set up a RAID system and B. many computers today have SATA compatibility and some don't have ATA drive support at all. if you're using external drive enclosures, be sure to get ones that have Firewire connection as that's currently the fastest.<br>
<br>I'd also have to see some studies on drive longevity if it's kept in a stable environment and never used and then activated after a long time (and also a drive that's constantly running, or only being run for short periods and being shut on and off fairly regularly).<br>
<br>Seagate<br><br>160 GB - 3.33GB/$<br>250GB - 4.31/$<br>320GB - 4.57/$<br>500GB - 6.66/$<br>750GB - 7.50/$<br>1TB - 4.54/$<br><br><br>Western Digital <br><br>80 - 2.05<br>160 - 3.63/$<br>250 - 4.31<br>320 - 4.92<br>500 - 6.66<br>
750 - 6.25<br>1TB - 5.26<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 7:03 PM, Andrew Armstrong <<a href="mailto:andrew@aarmstrong.org">andrew@aarmstrong.org</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Yeah, the manufacturer and the medium are not really going to have a chance of being the same in 200 years.<br>
<br>
It'd be nice to investigate a proper archive. I wish I knew of some in the UK, there must be data archives (the British Library perhaps) even if they have nothing for computer software archives.<br><font color="#888888">
<br>
Andrew</font><div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
<br>
Captain Commando wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Even if they say this disc will last for 200 years, I don't think the company is going to be around 200 years when we find out whether or not they were right :P<br>
</blockquote></div><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">
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