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Guide to Digital Preservation from NIST
Little Hamster writes "The scientists working on the Digital Preservation Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released an excellent 50 page guide on care and handling of CDs and DVDs for long term storage. It talks about the effects of light, moisture, radiation, scratches, marking, adhesive labels, and even playback on the discs. For those slashdotters who is not familiar with the physical made up of these optical discs, there is a very nice chapter explaining all the background. And if you only want to know how to care for your precious data, there is a one page summary. And yes, they agreed that glued-on labels are harmful."
I wonder if post it notes are bad?
Use a black felt pen. If you do it right you get to label the CD and defeat copy protection at the same time
For CDs especially do not:
2. Use a pen,pencil,or fine-tip marker to write on the disc.
When I was young, we didn't have those fancy automatic CD burners, we had to manually write to them. And if you made one error, you had to walk 20 miles through a blizzard to the "local" dealer.
Well, I'd argue that. Punch cards don't corrupt althoguh I found MANY ways to screw them up (and some were creative too! Try target practive with a paperclip bow and arrow trying to get the arrow through the punch holes ;))
I'm backing up all of my data onto 8-track tapes and storing them on the dashboard of my car. They will be safe forever there...
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords
light, moisture, radiation, scratches, marking, adhesive labels
Light can make pretty colours on your walls from the reflection off a CD.
AOL CDs make cool coasters - so moisture is good!
Radiation - anyone try putting a CD in a small bowl of water, putting a paperclip on it and putting it in the microwave?
Scratches - Two words(acronymns): AOL CD
Marking - See Scratching
Adhesive labels - but what other kinds of labels can you get? Surely the adhesive types are preferable to the kind that aren't adhering. I mean if I put a CD in a drive with a label that didn't adhere, I'd ruin the drive alot faster than with an adhesive label.
This was only a test (of my idiocy). Had this been a real example of my idiocy, someone would have killed me by now!
"I've had floppies.. [go bad] over time."
The solution... VIAGRA!
Boy, I can't wait to use my ??? on my ??? in the future!
Anybody who was able to get the 50 page article know why doing the horizontal bop is bad?
"Do not: ...
8. Expose recordable discs to prolonged sunlight..."
in other words, make no change in your lifestyle whatsoever.
And if you only want to know how to care for your precious data, there is a one page summary.
They forgot a lot of useful tips. Here they are:
DO:
- not write anything on CDRs. No Data means no data to lose
- use a felt-tip marker to write your data in readable hex format on the label side of multiple CDS, as a backup.
DON'T:
- use your CDs as freesbies to play with the dog
- use your CDs as under-glasses
- punch a hole on the side of the CD to hang it on your key ring
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
and I'm going to be backing up all my extremely high dpi scans to disk, twice, and storing a set in seperate locations.
Yeah, it sure sucks when your collection of porn mags doesn't fit under your bed anymore.
Sorry, I don't want to have anything to do with your old Wang. And stop lying about it's size. 50cm, yeah right.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
This supposed guide on how to keep CD/DVD discs preserved reminds me of a story back in high school. A friend of mine (around 1997-98) carved his name onto his CD so that other people wouldn't steal it.
Of course, this bright individual decided to carve his name onto the UNDERSIDE of the CD, instead of the top side.
Before I knew this, I asked him if I could borrow the CD so I could rip it to mp3. When I saw the underside of the CD, I realized that there was no help for this person whatsoever.
I think White Zombie plus Acid does bad things to today's youth. Mostly acid.
The most amazing thing is that he graduated high school.
The main lesson here is to TRY and take care of your albums. Don't leave them out, let your kids throw them around the room. But then... this sort of thing is obvious to any doofus who has made it out of high school.
Oh wait...Nevermind.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
don't forget to protect against nature's most
destructive force - 3 year old boys on a sugar
buzz.
-- All that's left of me, is slight insanity, whats on the right, I don't know. -- Bob Mould
You haven't heard about the state of Florida voting results in the last US Presidental election, have you?
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.