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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 I've thought of CDs, DVDs, a hard drive, or a thumb drive — but they all have drawbacks, not the least of which is outdated technology 25 years from now.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."

2 of 1,044 comments (clear)

  1. There's only one guaranteed solution by jimicus · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Print them.

    Granted, you won't store as many. But unless you're prepared to bury a digital photo frame and power supply at the same time, I really don't see how you can guarantee that the media will be readable with whatever technology we're using in 25 years time.

    (And the digital photo frame isn't guaranteed - who knows what state the electronics will be in in 25 years? Plenty of time capsules have been opened only to discover that they're not as waterproof as was originally thought.)

  2. Why choose one? by LionKimbro · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Perhaps put the same data in multiple forms: CD, DVD, Blue-Ray, USB key, hard disk, ...

    Perhaps even include a complete bootable computer that starts into a web server, serving the images.

    And then as the last resort, print-outs of the images.