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Very authoritative /techon.nikkeibp.co.jp article. It claims that even resting the newer 3 bit per cell flash chips earmarked for consumer grade USB thumb drives can lose data in as little as a year. There is better one bit per cell flash. But having read this piece (if it is at all accurate) I would never store a consumer grade SSD for 25 years and expect to read it without difficulty.

I think If I wanted to store data reliably for twenty five years on machine readable media I would choose -- as some have already suggested -- an archival gold DVD. Since a lot of important data are being stored on these currently it should be no trouble to find a reader capable of reading them in twenty-five years. My guess is that at least some future optical drives will be backward compatible. If only because 100 year archives are currently being created on long-life discs. You might have to pay a professional to load your data to your cloud account, however, as consumer hardware might include optical drives. But there is little doubt that you could get a DVD read in twenty five years with ease.

I have read that optical discs should be stored in their jewel cases standing on edge; that is, perpendicular to the ground. I think if you add in a duplicate to the mix then you will guard against some random defect sandbagging you. Maybe the dupe should be from another brand, like Verbatim. Bag the discs in plastic. And throw in a pouch of desiccant as others have said. Not a need for special treatment for the box IMHO. Cool dry place. Twenty five years will go by in the blink of an eye. Lemme tell ya. I recently opened some storage that was put up when I went overseas in 1989. Everything was in pretty good shape.

The broader question of what to put in the box is more interesting than how to preserve it. A video postcard from each participant would be nice. (Stored on the gold DVD.) A small personal item worn on the day of the silver jubilee might be worth seeing. What about a secret message from each person in a sealed envelope?

Something like: "I loved you from afar in history class back then. But you noticed me not. And I would have never divorced you and taken every penny like SHE did. But then you always were a damned fool, you damned fool."

Then again you could always just do butt scans on the copier. My guess is that the copy paper will hold up better than your butts will after 25 years.

use gold dvds and flood the time capsule with CO2 or some other suitable gas which will prevent any corrosion.

Since I shoot RAW, I also burn a copy of dcraw.c onto every disc - so even if the current platforms get lost by the wayside, there will be code to convert them still.

Storage itself? Currently burning onto Delkin Archival Gold, storing cool and dark, and in two physically distant locations.

They're also stored on my harddisk, and the best are backed up onto a USB drive.

If it looks like the DVD-ROM drive is becoming obsolete I'll burn them on to whatever comes along next.

If you're truly paranoid you can always print them on archival quality paper using pigment based inks ;)

The 100 year archival quality CD's were only the pressed CD-ROMs made with high quality dies... not the mass procuced CDs that AOL ships out and especially not CD-Rs.

I have definitely seen 100 year claims on CDR "archival" media. As have other people as is evident in the comments here under this story. Now I am not claiming that they can actually do it, I am just stating the claims of some manufacturers.

The real question would be who is marketing and specing CD-R manufacturing for archival quality CDs and have specs guarenteeing that they will last 10+ years without failing? There must be somebody out there doing that, but I don't know of them myself.

Here are the claims:

Delkin CDR 300 years!
Delkin DVDR 100 years.
TDK CDR 100 years.
Memorex CDR 100 years.
Claims of Fuji CDR 70-100 years and Kodak 100-200 years!
Some brand I've never heard of with 100 year CDR's but 1 year warrantee. ; )
Verbatim CDR 100 years.

Etc, etc, etc.

Someone else posted here that some company provides a 100 year warrantee and I have also seen that TDK once made such a ridiculous offer too.

Whatever the deal is, it is certainly WELL over the 5 year maximum that "expert" claims.

The 100 year archival quality CD's were only the pressed CD-ROMs made with high quality dies... not the mass procuced CDs that AOL ships out and especially not CD-Rs.

I have definitely seen 100 year claims on CDR "archival" media. As have other people as is evident in the comments here under this story. Now I am not claiming that they can actually do it, I am just stating the claims of some manufacturers.

The real question would be who is marketing and specing CD-R manufacturing for archival quality CDs and have specs guarenteeing that they will last 10+ years without failing? There must be somebody out there doing that, but I don't know of them myself.

Here are the claims:

Delkin CDR 300 years!
Delkin DVDR 100 years.
TDK CDR 100 years.
Memorex CDR 100 years.
Claims of Fuji CDR 70-100 years and Kodak 100-200 years!
Some brand I've never heard of with 100 year CDR's but 1 year warrantee. ; )
Verbatim CDR 100 years.

Etc, etc, etc.

Someone else posted here that some company provides a 100 year warrantee and I have also seen that TDK once made such a ridiculous offer too.

Whatever the deal is, it is certainly WELL over the 5 year maximum that "expert" claims.

A lot of similar devices popped up in recent months. And I really mean a lot. Maybe not all of them are powered by AA batteries, some have Li-Ion rechargable battery, some have bundled power adapter. I did a bit of research on this some time ago, here's list of already available devices (as opposed to the one from story, which will be available in mid Jan only):

http://www.macally.com/new/new_syncbox.html, review of this product.
http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/input_device/table ts.html - "coming soon"
http://www.delkin.com/pdf/product_docs/usb_bridge. pdf
http://www.usbgear.com/USBG-OTG25.html
http://www.sarotech.com/cgi/main_eng.cgi?cmd=cutie dx_e
http://www.welland.com.tw/html/otg.html
http://www.welland.com.tw/html/otg/940otg.html
http://www.sitecom.com/index.php?prod_id=308&grp_i d=1
http://www.usbgear.com/USBG-OTG1.html
http://itsupplier.trustpass.alibaba.com/offerdetai l/12276816/Sell_font_color_red_Otg_font_Enclosure. html
http://www.globalsources.com/si/6007000637244/Prod uctDetail/Flash-MP3/product_id-1000452775/action-G etProduct.htm

Make your pick. But remember that some USB devices (like flash drives) are powered through USB port directly, so USB On-the-go host is supposed to provide power both for embedded hard drive and whatever you attach to it. Think about it when buying device powered by AA batteries - they may be not enough for some power-hungry USB appliances, microdrive-based "flash" drives are coming to mind here.

I just read on Steve's Digicams news page the other day that Delkin has gotten into the market for gold CD-R media. You can check that out here.

I don't know if they manufacture it themselves or just buy it from MAM-E/MAM-A like some other brands. I also don't know if they're actually any good, so I'd like some opinions on the matter. I've been thinking of getting a stack of 100 for archiving photos.

Companies involved in various aspects of this market include Archos, Nikon, Sony, SanDisk and Epson, as well as a whole slew of smaller names like I/OMagic, Sima, Transcend, Vosonic, Innoplus, Digi Magic and Delkin.

Right now, today, the new iPod Photo isn't destroying their market share. But as of today, we're at the point where we can buy an iPod and a little gizmo (like the SanDisk one) we stick flash cards into for display on a TV... or just buy an iPod Photo. With that Belkin attachment, any iPod can be your place to dump photos in the field. And other than adding card slots, most of the other features other products have that the iPod Photo doesn't offer can be added in firmware updates. One at a time. Step by step. Until another market segment is overrun by white-earbudded iPod people. :)

But by the time that happens, the iPod Photo will probably have video playback capability, since again, that's totally just a matter of adding the capabilities through a firmware upgrade. Sure, it's not a top priority for Apple right now, but they've got the hardware now, and just have to code the functionality in the firmware.

In a year or two, will we all be saying "iPod uber alles" with regard to things other than music? Dunno. But if it happens, I won't be surprised.

price(H1xx)+price(bridge)<price(H3xx), that's why I finally chose H1xx.

Quit your whining, and get a 32-bit cardbus adapter.
http://www.delkin.com/delkin_products_adapters_car dbus.html
(waring: drivers are only beta for MacOSX)

Interestingly enough, there is something like this for USB. The problem with the iPod is that I don't think it will work if you want to use it as a music player (playlists, etc.) You probably have to treat the iPod as an external HD.