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Re:Tape Storage Might Be Computing’s Climate Savior by lionkor on Thursday August 17, 2023 @03:05AM (#37158204)
Call me crazy, but there must be a way to store data indefinitely, right? I mean, writing it on a piece of paper and putting that paper in a box can last practically forever, given its not actively physically destroyed.

Could we not come up with a tape storage that is write-once? Like a PROM, but in tape form? You do this, you add some checksums every now and then, and you just lock the thing away. How is that not going to last 100+ years if physically undisturbed?

Re:Tape Storage Might Be Computing’s Climate Savior by avidiax on Thursday August 17, 2023 @03:26AM (#37158345)
Gold film with holes lasered into it should last indefinitely. Probably the longevity of the reel, container and building are more of a problem.
Re:Tape Storage Might Be Computing’s Climate Savior by Tachyooon on Thursday August 17, 2023 @03:39AM (#37158437)
Github's backup on Svalbard also uses some kind of film, and it's supposed to last 500 to 1000 years: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_World_Archive
Re:Tape Storage Might Be Computing’s Climate Savior by jl6 on Thursday August 17, 2023 @04:10AM (#37158614)
We have data from thousands of years ago that has survived on stone tablets, papyrus, etc., but we don’t know what the failure rate is. The surviving items might be 1% of the originals.

The best way to preserve data long term is to make lots of copies, distribute them widely, and migrate the copies onto new technologies periodically.

Re:Tape Storage Might Be Computing’s Climate Savior by voxadam on Thursday August 17, 2023 @07:18AM (#37159933)
The Rosetta Project had (has?) the goal of storing a modern day Rosetta Stone[1] on nickle disks etched with nearly 14,000 pages of text in eight human languages. They expect that with minimal care the discs should remain legible for thousands of years.[2]

[0] https://rosettaproject.org/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone

[2] https://rosettaproject.org/about/

Re:Tape Storage Might Be Computing’s Climate Savior by saulpw on Thursday August 17, 2023 @12:20PM (#37164056)
Paper in a box does not last forever--less than 100 years. It can last longer with the right paper and in climate-controlled environment. But this is not passive storage, you have to use energy every day to maintain the facility.