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/
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.
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?