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Music industry’s 1990s hard drives, like all HDDs, are dying (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 months ago by some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

134 comments fedilink hide all child comments

My father told me he wanted to make USB flash drives of all the scanned and digitized family photos and other assorted letters and mementos. He planned to distribute them to all family members hoping that at least one set would survive. When I explained that they ought to be recipes to new media every N number of years or risk deteriorating or becoming unreadable (like a floppy disk when you have no floppy drive), he was genuinely shocked. He lost interest in the project that he’d thought was so bullet proof.

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[–] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

I explained that they ought to be recipes to new media every N number of years or risk deteriorating or becoming unreadable

This is important, and for some media, it should be more often than that.

People forget that flash memory uses electrical charge to store data. It's not durable. If left unpowered for too long, that data will get corrupted. A failure might not even be visible without examining every bit of every file.

Keep backups. Include recovery data (e.g. PAR2) with them. Store them on multiple media. Keep them well-maintained. Copy them to new storage devices before the old ones become obsolete.

It's funny that with all our technology, paper is still the most durable storage medium (under normal conditions) that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

[–] BehindTheBarrier@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago

If I had a cent every time an artist on patron had their computer die on them and lost works in progress or all their old stuff... I'd afford a few coffees.

[–] wrekone@lemmyf.uk 1 points 2 months ago

Anything important, I write on clay tablets.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Tape backups, baby.

No, I don't have a library of those. I don't even have a tape drive.

[–] Metalemming@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

This is my next step, i just wish tape drives werent so expensive.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

People forget that flash memory uses electrical charge to store data. It's not durable. If left unpowered for too long, that data will get corrupted.

Yeah, but the link in the article, strict checks and no data loss over 52 weeks. Not neccessarily in USB sticks though. And sure, backups.

[–] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That number comes from a single manufacturer's performance targets. It is not a guarantee of real-world results. You might be able to get Intel to replace an SSD if one of them corrupts data in under 52 weeks (assuming you notice it) but your data will still be gone.

Hardware performance can and does vary by brand, model, and manufacturing run. Even the nominally identical cores within a single CPU have slightly different performance limits. YMMV.

Note also: that 52 week target is halved at just 5° higher power-off temperature.

[–] SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 months ago

It's funny that with all our technology, paper is still the most durable storage medium (under normal conditions) that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Sophistication often creates fragility. The human mind marvels at sophistication naturally; appreciation for resilience usually only comes after that fragile thing has broken. Of course it's too late by then.

All them young whipper snappers will continue to learn these life lessons the hard way, it seems.