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Digital Storage To Survive a 25-Year Dirt Nap?
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 I've thought of CDs, DVDs, a hard drive, or a thumb drive — but they all have drawbacks, not the least of which is outdated technology 25 years from now.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."
Change up IDE for SATA and you might have a chance, since SATA is relatively new and SATA2 is backwards compatible with SATA1, etc.
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.
AC power should still be around.
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.
just bury the entire PC. Surely AC power will still be around in 25 years.
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You can't guarantee that the data will be intact when they open the capsule. Nor can you guarantee that the gear you send will survive.
Seems to me that your best bet is three separate distribution mechanism.
1. CDs AND DVDs (two copies of everything), a small portable DVD player with multiple interfaces - component/composite/s-video out
2. NAS device with at least two disks (two copies of everything) and multiple interfaces - eSATA/SCSI/USB2/FireWire/ethernet(dhcp)/etc.
3. Digital picture frame and a handful of memory modules (two copies of everything)
Ensure that whatever device you send goes complete with power adapter and user manual. In at least two languages.
All there is to do when you're done, is cross your fingers and hope that video displays still operate in two dimensions :)
It really doesn't matter. If you use any popular media the technology will still be around to use it. We live in a big world, and there always geeks who love to collect stuff like that.
Of all the interfaces that will still be around 25 years from now USB has the best chance. I am not so sure about wether or not the flash memory will hold up. But with the BILLIONS of usb devices out there nowadays I find it hard to believe the format will be gone 25 years from now.
I'd recommend including a device that can actually play back whatever media/content you choose. Then your only worry will be whether you can get the device powered in 25 years. I would imagine that a regular power cord will still plug in (somewhere) even after 25 years.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
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?
25 years is not THAT much, you make the problem sound much harder than it is.
Prints is an obvious solution as already mentioned.
Then, include a couple of CD copies. Forget about putting IDE drives in there. The CD format has been around for more than 25 years, I am sure we will keep using some sort of optical media that will be CD compatible for a few more years. Even if they don't make CD-R compatible drives in 25 years (which i doubt), it will be easy to find an older drive with the capability. Just make sure you use archival-quality media and don't stick any CD-label on it.
Then throw in a usb thumbdrive in case the USB (along with the thumbdrive) survive!
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Archive the data in some sane fashion, and then, in 24 years, dig it up and stick in a DVD (or for extra credit, a format that has not existed for the entire time the capsule has been buried.
Another option would be to contact Amazon or Google and ask how much they would charge you to keep the backup live for 25 years and then just bury the account information.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Screw digital. Get them printed to archival-grade microfilm and store them in a moisture-proof container. Microfilm is designed to last a minimum of 500 years when kept under the proper (and relatively easy to maintain) condition. All you need is a light source and a good lens to view it. Most of the world's better professional archives use a combo of microfilms and digital archiving to keep stuff around... the microfilm guarantees longevity while the digital copy is easy to search and access.
The 5.25" optical disc format seems to be the most likely to survive, given that the CD doesn't seem to be getting replaced in a physical format anytime soon, and the follow-on products (DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray) all use the same basic format and are backward-compatible due to the low cost of the lasers involved for the previous format(s). Given the preference in the mainstream to keep backward compatibility and the fact that even the fun new terabyte media are in a similar format, this is the best overall bet.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Alternative title: "How many bullshit redundant replies can you fit in a Slashdot thread?"
Print out all the binary information on acid free paper so it can be optically scanned in 25 or 2500 years.
If you use paper, SD card, USB memory stick, hard drive, or whatnot it would have to survive being welded into the box, as well as opening the box.
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It would be entirely possible to make a paper copy of binary data that could easily be read in with the correct software. Of course, the paper you would want to use would be acid-free.
One could simply encode the binary as forward slashes and backward slashes. Or as x's and o's.
But those would be really wasteful.
I've often thought that what would make a really good software contest would be to develop a format to back data up to a paper copy on a laser printer using the best compression possible but with enough error correction and detection to be able to read just about any paper put in that comes out in reasonable shape.
For example, one might use individual pixels on the paper. Or you might want to group several together and treat as a bit. Or use an innovative coding scheme that doesn't just map individual bits to spots on the paper.
I think that a scheme that spreads the information out over the entire paper might be interesting. In other words, the individual bits of a byte and any bits dealing with the error detection and correction would be located remotely from each other.
In such a contest, testing would be easy. Write images of several datasets to paper and then scan the images in after different stages of intentional damage to the paper. For example, you might read two data files back from the pristine paper without doing anything. Another two data sets might come from paper that has been crumpled up into a ball and then flattened. Two more might be from paper that has been moistened. Two more from paper with a tear across the middle. And, finally, make copies of two data sets on an everyday copier and then scan them in and decode.
Rank the results by the numbers of errors, possibly with factors to take in levels of difficulty based on the amount of damage to the paper, and select a winner.
...for the vessel.
And yes, photographic paper and black-and-white images would last the longest.
The media may survive and be theoretically readable, but nobody will be able to read it. 25 years ago was 1983. The IBM PC was only 2 years old, the PC/XT had just been introduced. The IDE interface you hope will be around in 25 years? It didn't exist then. It didn't appear until 1986, and wasn't standardized (as ATA) until 1994. And it's at this point been all but replaced by SATA (I expect EIDE/ATAPI CD/DVD drives to be completely replaced by SATA ones by next year). The standard disk interfaces 25 years ago? ST-506, ESDI and SCSI. I don't expect changes in drive interfaces to slow down any, so expect in 25 years that even if you include the drive nobody's going to have a controller interface to plug it into. 9-track mag tape, 8" floppies, 5.25" floppies, punch cards, all those were standard digital media 25 years ago and you'd be hard-pressed to find equipment to read the media or computers that can interface with the equipment if you do find it.
Many consumer grade photo printers actually produce pictures with significantly shorter lifespans than their digitally stored copies. There was a great comparison a few months back of 6 different printers/papers/inks that varied greatly in their performance at only 6 months.
Now, if you really want to get long term with it, write the binary value of the image out on paper, or even punched in steal. 10101010101 etc... sure, it'll take a whole lot of time, money, and metal, but you could be sure that all that data is going to be around for a lot longer than 20 years ;)
Although, if you're going that route, Microfiche would probably work just as well, along with being cheaper and a lot more compact. It would still leave the person who recovers it the tedious task of recreating the file digitally, but it would last, and you know some undergrad would write get a grant to figure it out and write a thesis on it.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Bit of a weird one I know, but if you want guaranteed data retrieval (barring internet annihilation), why not make a deal with a hosting company to keep a website of yours live for 25 years, and write the URL of it in stone with a date, to be placed underground and dug up in the future?
Two major problems with printing them, for all the Luddites that have replied so far...
First, a single CD will hold 500-1000 images, stored as reasonably high-quality JPEGs. A similar stack of printouts on photo-quality paper would measure up to a foot thick (1000 pictures on 12mil paper).
Second, and perhaps more important if volume doesn't matter, a sheet of paper will break down far faster than a polycarbonate disc when subjected to a moist environment.
Simple solution? Burn a dozen copies of a CD using something like PAR2 redundancy to allow complete recovery if even a tenth of the content remains readable on each CD. Include simple extraction instructions in a more durable form (a note sealed in an acrylic block? an etched nickel tablet? Something like that - Small and to the point). For the naysayers, this involves 25 years, not 2500. We'll still have CD reading drives available then, whether museum pieces or simple due to never-ending backward compatibility in newer optical drives.
...seriously, outdated? They will sell CD/DVD/Blu-Ray combo players for decades still, though my experience with CD-Rs has been strained in the longetivity department. And with USB1/2/3, you think that's going away? Hell, we still haven't been able to kill the keyboard/mouse PS/2 plug, and that one is extremely much less useful. Don't go with HDD interfaces, they could easily change. But the external connectors that people have tons of USB gadgets and CD records of? You got to be kidding me. If it's just readable, we'll have the readers.
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Take black and white photographs of them and print on acid free fiber based paper. Then it will last for 100+ years.
what format was around 25 years ago, that is still available today?
now- what was around 50 years ago- that is still available today?
now-- for the hell of it, what's been around since 1844--- and still available today?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
mod parent up please...
he's spot on. Anybody that has ever welded anything at all will confirm that the inside of whatever you're welding tends to get a little warm, especially if it is a sealed container.
Cold rolling it shut would be a better option, evacuating it and using a simple seal would be even better, especially since that would stop the medium from being attacked by oxygen.
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Electrolytic capacitors are used in the power supply filtering of essentially all circuitry currently in use. These components will be present in a number of places on the circuit boards of both disk drives and memory sticks.
The insulating layer between the plates in electrolytic capacitors is formed by electricity-driven chemical action. It gradually degrades over a period of several years. If the capacitor is operated occasionally the operating voltage across it will rebuild the insulating layer. But if it's left unused for too long the layer will degrade to the point that, when power is finally applied, the capacitor will short and (because most of them are hooked across a power supply) fail catastrophically. Like by blowing open and jetting chemical fumes, while shorting out the supply and damaging other components in the current path.
Mechanical moving parts may lose lubrication and spot-weld with time. This also makes storing entire drives problematic.
Recordible CDs usually record on a die layer that will degrade with time.
Some types of flash memory store data as stored charges, which will leak away with time.
So IMHO degradation of the medium itself is likely to be a killer problem. Much more than readability with future devices. (After only 25 years there should still be some working players available for currently widely-deployed standards, even if no new ones are being manufactured. Once you've go the bits read you can transfer them to new media.)
Things I'd consider:
- Integrated circuit memory devices using a technology like fusible link or a crystalline/amorphous transition. (Replace any electrolytic capacitors with ceramic types - which will greatly increase the size of the assembly.)
- CD masters involving actual removal of material - a material inert enough that it will not corrode away with time.
- If you want to store drives for removable media (and convert the caps), check with the manufacturers about what the bearings are like and talk with a mechanical engineer with applicable experience (like mil-spec or space-rated). I'd avoid sealed hard drives, especially those that don't lift the heads off the platters when parked.
Also: Use a coding scheme that has industrial-grade error correction. B-)
One downside to your task is that, with only a 25-year storage time, you'll probably still be alive to be blamed for failures when they open it. B-)
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Generally speaking, you can pull data from media formats (medium) that are 25 years old. If your capsule was to be opened in 50 or 100 years then you'd have a problem, but most media formats that are 25 years old are still readable today. How much effort it would take varies...
If you had a 160/180/320/360KB 5 1/4" floppy disk from 1983, you could even read it by buying an old 5 1/4" drive off eBay, connect it to the same floppy connector that's still in use today, and read the disk directly in Vista. Now, if instead you were trying to read an MFM/RLL hard drive, 8" floppy, magnetic tape, punch card, etc. from that era, then you'd have more of a problem--but it would still be doable.
Also, many companies make specialty products to connect old equipment to new PCs. While I've never seen one, there's probably a company that makes a USB 5 1/4" floppy drive. If push comes-to-shove, you can always buy old equipment to bridge the gap... If I had an MFM/RLL hard drive from 1983, I could always buy an XT or AT from ~1983-1991 (that has an MFM/RLL interface), connect it to a new PC by way of a serial port (well, the new PC will probably have a USB-to-Serial converter) or Ethernet and transfer the data.
Pick a technology that's very well used today and you should be fine reading it 25 years from now. Sure, it'll take some effort & creativity, but it should work. But if you pick a technology that's old by today's standards and you'll have even more trouble reading it in the future...
That being said, I would worry more about the media--whether it will withstand 25 years of isolation, heat expansion/contraction, humidity, etc.
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
There is no good reason to put time-capsules underground besides some strange belief that it should be done that way. You're much better putting the contents above-ground inside of a wall, behind a plaque, etc. This way, it is much less likely for there to be water or other sorts of damage that plagues underground storage, you also have a smaller chance of it being lost or forgotten. If secured properly, there should be very minimal risk of tampering.
That's it! He should store it in the ./ comments!
home
Let the people of the future figure it out, if they're so smart. If you really want to encourage them, just label everything "porn" and leave it at that.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
At least Seiko produces serial EEPROMs with > 50yrs data retention, and are rated for high temperatures (125 degrees C).
Those max out at 64k, though.
You'd probably want to use some sort of EM shielding (Faraday cage or similar) in addition to ESD protection, and thermal shielding to keep the temperature on the surface of the die below 125C during welding, and also carefully choose your burying location.
But, yeah, storing thousands (the OP didn't actually say thousands of photos, did he?) of pictures would require thousands of 64k (k-bit, I believe!) of ICs. I can only imagine the programming effort involved; special jigs that house & power hundreds of PROMs per batch write...
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I'm not so sure if there will be folks around in 25 years who understand CD/DVD/USB technology ... but one thing I will guarantee, they will be wanking off on Internet porn.
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Full machine, ROM (not EPROM, not EEPROM, not Flash) storage with ECC, and a ROM reader. Leave instructions for powering up the machine: 120VAC at 60Hz sinusoidal, diagram the connector to show hot-neutral-ground. It's pretty hard to not do that right; I get whatever the hell voltage I want out of transformers, and can rectify and then solid-state generate AC at any frequency. That's your best option.
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Printing would be a space issue as well as the varying qualities of print sources, commercial or otherwise. It seems odd that nobody mentioned microfilm though, the libraries and newspapers have been using it for far more than 25 years and would surely be able to retrieve from it in the future. In fact retrieval will probably be even easier with advances in scanning technology. It saves space and could easily be saved in a smaller and more optimum storage container within the capsule to prevent decay.
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?
Considering filling the container with an inert gas like nitrogen in order to reduce any wear and tear caused by corrosion. Just make sure that whatever inert gas you pick, unless it is helium or neon, is really inert with respect to the contents of your time capsule.
Kodak guarantees their Gold CD and DVDs for 100 years. I don't know how they can, but that would be your best bet. I don't know what they'd do if they didn't hold up 25 years later, but at least that might make your boss happy. I'm sure you can find other discs from other manufacturers who make archival-quality discs.
Read this: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/faqs/faq1632.shtml
Any device you throw in there to read your media has a pretty good chance of dying a quiet death over the next 25 years. Even one critical hardware failure anywhere from the power supply to the output will require a large repair bill from a specialist.
Also, anything that outputs through a plug (CD-ROM drive, ATA drive, thumb drive, etc) will require an equally antiquated device to playback whatever you store because there's no way anything 25 years from now will be using s-video, firewire, or usb. Yes, there may be widespread adoption of Firewire 13 or Superduperspeed USB, but you can be damn sure at the very least the plugs won't fit.
Throw a DVD in there, maybe three or four copies individually wrapped. With any luck at all we'll still be using optical media to some extent and it'll be backwards compatible thanks to everyone's dvd collections.
The interface could be problematic, but somebody will have the means to read the data off of the EPROM into our quantum-tunneling diamond-substrate 100GHz personal computer interface devices. Or that dusty Pentium 2GHz non-DRM computer in the basement.
"I could read a 5 1/4 floppy disk today,"
Maybe. 1 out of 5-10 probably after 25 years.
Now try that with a 25 year-old 3-1/2" floppy. Not sure i would bet on 1 out of 10. The newer the format the shorter the lifespan it seems as densities increase :(
I had a failure rate of about 5% on 5-1/4" but at least twice that on 3-1/2" disks trying to transfer my old DOS stuff :(
Like someone else said, maybe several formats and/or many copies. 1 of 10 DVDs might survive.
Learn all you can from the (arguably) failure of the BBC Domesday Project and build from there.
My advice for a time capsule is:
It's tough but it just might be doable. Again, the keywords are redundancy and simplicity. If the data is important, make two identical time capsules and store them in geographically different areas (different tectonic plates are safest but this is probably overkill :) ). It's important that the copies of the time capsule be identical so data lost from one can be restored from the other.
-- Sig down
Paper has a 100+ years life expectancy. Modern laser prints are not that much worse, at most pages will stick together to some degree, so make sure it is one-sided printing.
As to electronic solutions, data recovery companies should still be able to read CDs in 25 years. But practially no burned CD will survive that long. CVD is not better. As to a thumb-drive, the current data retention times are 10 years, so that is out. HDDs are also out. While they might survive that long, the current visdom is that you should power them up once a year. 3.5" MOD disks are the only viable electronic option, I think. They are used in a lot of medical imaging equipment and in several countries digital x-rays need to be stored for 20 years. MODs can give you that, with a current media life expectanty of >50 years. I would expect that professional data recovery for MODs will be available in 25 years as well.
As to filesystem, go FAT. It is simple and will till be supported, e.g. by Linux.
Quote franklty, the paper solution is best.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
everything needs to be sealed well, however. double or triple on some water-tight somethingsomething to be safe,
Or maybe submerging it into mineral oil. Does anyone know if electronics can withstand 25 years submerged into oil ?
Everything will also need to be redundant :
- burned DVD-R/CD-R media may rot. Harddrive may refuse to spin because of chemical aging of the mechanical part, flash memory could fail, etc...
- as much spares as possible. 25 years from now, spare parts will probably be hard to find.
- a couple of SATA and USB drives/readers. Whatever the are the connection 25 years in the future, USB is currently so popular that in the future, we're bound to see adapters, just the we we currently see Serial-2-USB adapter even if serial connector have been phased out for quite some time.
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Come to think of it, printouts of data compressed and printed out as 2D barcode may be the most durable technology.
- extensive experience shows that, under proper conditions, paper can be made survive for even longer than 25 years.
- reading and decoding a 2D barcode doesn't require any technology specific to the current generation of hardware.
- as long as the data is stored in a redundant manner and that it use open and well documented standard with source code available. It would still be accessible by computer 25 years later, even if it requires some programming and/or re-implementation of a long lost standard.
(as a bonus, include documentation of formats printed in clear on paper too)
- choose simpler standards. chance are none of the current open source library processing it will be available in 25 years. the kids will probably have to re-code a reader / decompressor using whatever will be the popular high-level language du jour ( Ruberlython#++ or something similar ). may make a fun science project for them.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I have family photographs that are over 150 years old that are quite legible without being stored in a hermetically sealed container. They're glass plate Daguerreotypes, but early paper photos almost as old still look fine, too.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
Only a handful of working systems in US including mine.
That's awesome! I have an old wang I would really like to get something from. Do you think I could take my wang out and put it in your system?
The old black and white Silver halide prints last for a very long time. I've got a 11X14 family print of my GG-grandmother and her children that is exquisite in it's clarity and quality. It was taken in 1893. Color prints from the 1950s haven't fared nearly so well. The dyes fade.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
> and I know for a fact that CDRs deteriorate after about 10 years.
Some archival media is rated for 100 years. But forget that, just make a gold master and send it out to be commercially duplicated. It isn't THAT exensive, so have a small run of 100 copies made. Sell 90 of them in a fundraiser to recoup the expense of duplication and stick the other ten into a small stainless steel airtight container with an inert gas. Wrap that in some quality insulation to protect it againt the heat when the main capsule gets welded shut. I have heard lots of 25 year old audio compact discs and they sound just fine. But if there is enough bit rot to make recovering data dodgy, well you have nine more still shrinkwrapped copies to try reading any bad blocks from.
The only remaining question is whether equipment to read a Compact Disc will still be available in twenty five years. And the answer is almost certainly. It probably won't be nearly as popular as it is today but the LP is ten years in the grave and you can still buy a new turntable at Sears.
A pressed DVD might be even better because the recorded media is safely between two layers of substrate instead of only protected by the screenprinted label on the top. On the other hand we have enough history with the CD to know beyond any doubt that they survive in readable condition for the required time, even under typical consumer storage conditions.
Democrat delenda est
Awww man!!! I don't want to look at some guy's Wang!!!!
NASA has already tackled the problem of long-term access of unsupported storage
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Just curious - did you work for Sony or Philips? According to wikipedia CDR were first spec'd in 1988, 20 years ago.
25 years isn't such a problem but say you wanted to store the box for 250 years, then you really might have some issues...
The thing that scares me about digital storage these days is that redundancy is much lower as we cram more and more into tinier and tinier spaces. We offset the increased probability of errors with coding but IMHO that is a non-trivial operation from an archaeological perspective.
If you have only a small amount of data to store, is it possible to somehow print it in small, but recoverable dot patterns on long-life paper with long-life inks? I can't see scanner/camera technology disappearing anytime soon...
Pick a SCSI model hard drive. These things have been around since 1986, which is pretty close to the 25 years time-frame you are trying for. It also should be noted that we can still connect a SCSI-1 device into a modern day SCSI bus, so if someone had dropped a SCSI drive in 1986 into a time capsule that was to be opened up in 2011, there is a VERY good chance that we would be able to read it. This technology isn't going to go away either in the next 25 years. So it would be the method of choice if you are going to use a hard drive.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
There are plenty of books out there older than 25 years old... so print out the (binary, hex dump, 1's and 0's) onto paper and store them somewhere where they will survive.
Hell, even that's too tech... engrave the above into stone and make the Long Now Foundation proud.
p.s. Don't mod this funny. I'm not joking. There is no guarantee that any media that plugs into a computer will be easily accessible in 25 years time, but you can damn well guarantee that they will still have scanners, and that their OCR software will have improved since then.
Yes, yes it would. You see photographers actually care about their prints lasting (or at least they have since Wilhelm started doing permanence testing on color materials and discovered they all sucked at the time). A pigment inkjet print on acid-free paper or a good B&W silver halide print will probably outlast most digital media you can easily come up with. And the print is it's own reader. That said in 2012 we will still be able to find hardware to read 3.5in floppies from 1987 so it's perfectly reasonable to believe there will still be drives that can read archival gold CD-R and DVD+-R's in 25 years.
Aluminum electrolytic capacitors are still often seen on motherboards and cards, but I haven't seen one on a hard drive for well over a decade, and I seriously doubt that they've ever been used in a memory stick. I have some old hard drives from the early 1990's sitting right here. Not a single one has any aluminum electrolytic caps. They all use solid tantalum caps instead, which age much better.
Memory sticks don't need much capacitance, and are usually in thin packages (sometimes as thin as SD cards). It's unlikely that any of them would contain any tantalum caps, much less the much taller aluminum electrolytic caps. More likely just a few small value ceramics, or possibly even just some distributed capacitance layers built-in to the IC substrate, with no discrete capacitors at all.
I don't think it will be the medium that will be the problem, it will be the message. Imagine the shock of those viewing it to learn that our generation thought that there weren't WMD in Iraq or that Han Solo shot first. I'd limit the contents of this a few MP3's and photos of the Whitehouse, otherwise your time capsule will last all of 5 minutes after being unearthed before its whisked away to the Ministry of Subversive Materials.
Actually, better forget the MP3s, or you'll be tracked down by the RIAA and sued for 25years of lost song rental income.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
It comes in little packets which generally have "do not eat" printed on them.
No matter what solution he goes with I hope he stuffs a couple of handfuls of them in there.
No sig today...
Over 25 years connectors have changed a hell of a lot: The most popular keyboard connector in 1983 was DIN, then PS/2 in the late 80s and early 90s, then USB in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was possible, with an adapter, to use a 1983 keyboard on a PC up until most PCs eschewed with the PS/2 keyboard adapter a few PC generations back.
USB may well survive, but I'm doubtful; even RS-232 didn't last that long.
SATA almost certainly will not survive beyond a decade or so. Disk drive interfaces have tended to last only about 5 years, with another 5 or so of backward compatibility. Someone will start shouting "IDE IDE" I'm sure, or maybe "SCSI" from some old hats. But the IDE drive connector standard is just 14 years old and the last round of computers I bought a bit more than a year ago had no IDE connectors at all. Trying to connect an IBM AT drive to a modern PC will be an experience ... I was unable to connect drives from the early to mid 90s within 10 years.
I will be surprised if peripherals even use electrical interconnects 25 years from now. Think optical, baby.
I don't have any good ideas related to long-term digital storage. I have experience with this going back more than 20 years now and the experience is mostly bad. I do have 25 year old floppies that still work, but they need 15+ year old PCs to read them.
The good news, I suppose, is that those old PCs do still work. (I have a Kaypro II that I boot up occasionally.) If I really wanted to do this I would put a whole laptop full of data with a non-flash drive system in a baggie, fill the baggie with an inert gas, seal it up real good, then seal that in the box. If it all works 25 years from now you're good to go; if it doesn't maybe you can still talk to the drive. Maybe.
jim frost
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