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."

Comments

I dont trust any format.

[MrRTFM]

I've had floppies, CDs, DATs, Zip disks and even tapes go corrupt over time.

If it wasnt for multiple backups I'd have been stuffed, so for my personal stuff (and work) I keep everything on the hard disk. Luckily the size doubles every few years, so as long as the size of the data doesnt outgrow the size of the drives, I'll be fine.

It wouldn't hurt to get all your old disks and tapes and (un?) back them up onto a spare hard drive before its too late.

Re:I dont trust any format.

[Simonetta]

I keep everything on the hard disk. Luckily the size doubles every few years,...

I agree with using the hard disk as best backup. The size is small for the amount of data held and the access time to huge numbers of files is only thousandths of a second.

Hard disks have also inherent disadvantages. They are extrememly fragile, they must be screwed into the PC and be connected by confusing cables before use, the cost-per-megabyte is still eight times greater than removable optical disks like CD-R and DVD-R, and they can lose all of their data at once if the index gets corrupted.

I recommend that everyone take all their life documents, financial data, family photos, and career documentation and put all this data in encrypted form on inexpensive CD-Rs and DVDs. Place one in the glove box of your car. Send one to trusted family members or parents. Put one in a safe-deposit box either at your local bank or in a different country. Put the de-encryption passwords in your legal will, so your estate executors can get access to your information on the encrypted disks.

If for some reason you are forced to be living under an assumed identity, have another complete identity ready on a CD-R in your car or suitcase/backpack. You don't want to be in a situation where you find the police or the Migra waiting for you to come home and you're having all of your alternate identity papers inside the house. Make sure that the resolution of the scans of your alternate ID papers is good enough to recreate credible documents. With current 2400 DPI scanners selling for $100-$150 US, that shouldn't be a problem.

If something happens to the original papers or photos, then your records won't be lost. I've had friends lose their jobs and had all their personal papers and photos destroyed by callous landlords or vandals. I've seen (after living in California) people lose all their family records, life documents, and photos after fires, earthquakes, mudslides, floods, you-name-it.

We finally have low-cost tools to back up and recreate our lives. It would be a pity not to use them.

DRM

[wrmrxxx]

Knowing how to store data for a long time might not help you much if you can't read it back in 20 years because some twisted DRM scheme stops you.

Re:Looks like CD storage racks got it wrong then..

[hazee]

Couldn't you counteract the effects of any bowing of the discs by simply flipping them over every year or so?