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Digital Storage To Survive a 25-Year Dirt Nap?

Posted by timothy on from the lazarus-brand-only-goes-a-few-days dept.

AlHunt writes "I've been tasked with finding a way to bury digitally stored photographs in a small underground time capsule to be opened in 25 years. It looks like we'll be using a steel vessel, welded closed. I've thought of CDs, DVDs, a hard drive, or a thumb drive — but they all have drawbacks, not the least of which is outdated technology 25 years from now. Maybe I'll put a CD and a CD-ROM drive in the capsule and hope that the IDE interface is still around in 25 years? Ideas and feedback will be appreciated."

11 of 1,044 comments (clear)

  1. SATA, not IDE by Ubitsa_teh_1337 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Change up IDE for SATA and you might have a chance, since SATA is relatively new and SATA2 is backwards compatible with SATA1, etc.

    1. Re:SATA, not IDE by tekiegreg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd be curious to know whether or not a laptop could survive 25 years underground. I know he said welded shut, but rust and corrosion could still be issues.

      Maybe blueprints on how to build a computer to read said media should be included on paper? Then again even there, it's the same issue...

      Of course do take some comfort in that media useable in 1983 (25 years ago) can still be accessible with hardware available today in the second hand market, or even new hardware; certainly no new giant tape reels are being manufactured, but I do occasinally spot big tape reel reading equipment available on Ebay or some such place. I also recently spotted a USB drive for 5.25" disks which were around as far back as 1970, so take heart.

      --
      ...in bed
    2. Re:SATA, not IDE by hurfy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      hehe, 25 years ago we used a Wang 10MB removable platter for storage. Good luck with reading that. I have never seen the drive come up on eBay and the shipping alone would be several hundred plus adding a 20 amp circuit to plug it into :) Only a handful of working systems in US including mine.

      With the zillions of USB devices around they MAY make it that far. That Wang did make it 15+ years cause there were (relatively) alot of them installed. A SATA CD drive or HD might work. I also think the IDE drive is the least likely choice, it is only hanging on because of the CD/DVD drives :(

      I imagine any of them would be available second hand however due to sheer numbers now. HAving one out of thousands is a ways from finding one of 100's of millions in 25 years. Toss both a CD and thumbdrive in there and call it a day. Hmm, on second thought will the media itself be readable at that age? CDR probably won't make it. No idea on thumbdrive lifespan. Maybe a HD afterall, should be able to dig up (oops, bad pun) something to run it somewhere. Will a modern HD even store data that long?

    3. Re:SATA, not IDE by Rapidity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd be curious to know whether or not a laptop could survive 25 years underground. I know he said welded shut, but rust and corrosion could still be issues.

      Silica gel is often used in new furniture or goods that are going to be stored for a long time, it soaks up moisture and prevents anything nasty growing inside. I expect that could quite easily be used, a significant amount and keeping as much moisture from getting into the container before it's sealed would solve that issue.

      I'm more worried about knocks and magnets. If someone dug up a metal capsule in 25 years, would they know its contents were susceptible to shock or magnets?

      (Talk about off-topic for something titled "Re:SATA, not IDE" xD)

    4. Re:SATA, not IDE by cgenman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      25 years is not all that long. My relatives still have 25 year old computers, and I've seen much older still in production use at companies. The main difference is the lack of power and regular use. Could a battery or a process be used to intermittently power a device every 6 months for 25 years? The traditional solution to bit rot (either flash or otherwise) is to refresh with new energy and new copying.

      I assume that archival quality photo prints are too large for what you're attempting to store. What about writing each picture to a frame of a projection tape? Archival movie stock is pretty well understood at this point, and the size shouldn't be prohibitive.

      For that matter, pay IBM to host an encrypted file of the pictures for 25 years. On a large slab of granite chisel the URL, searchable file name, and decryption code.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
  2. Print them by Asmor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, just print them. Unless we somehow evolve new sensory organs in the next 25 years, I suspect that photographs won't be rendered useless through obsolescence. They can always scan them into new digital files afterwards.

  3. How about.... by uberhobo_one · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about a small digital picture frame? That way you could throw in your own flash drive, and the pictures would come with their own display medium. I'm sure they'll still have AA batteries 25 years from now.

    1. Re:How about.... by goto+begin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... I'm sure they'll still have AA batteries 25 years from now.

      Let's hope not?

  4. Paper? by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it absolutely, positively has to survive 25 years, it might be worth the expense of getting the photos professionally printed on good quality paper and, if you're worried about the box leaking, laminated. Okay, it's a smartass answer, but those are photos you're going to store, and they're known to last more than 25 years easily.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  5. Re:USB Stick by rho · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Floppy drives, $9 from Newegg.

    You can still buy motherboards with serial and parallel ports, for God's sake.

    25 years isn't that far in the future.

    --
    Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
  6. What's with everyone picking ONE format? by spoco2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is everyone suggest A format?

    Why not store the data on a:
    * DVD
    * Pile of CDs
    * USB drive
    * SD card
    * xD card
    * Hard drive

    And a choice few in hard copy.

    Seriously... with the price of these things, and the timeframe, surely you can afford to store it on all of these things and put them all in? Plus it'll be fascinating in 25 years time to see how many are still readable... all? None? Some?