Hi, Richard Owlett wrote: > I will be focused on what I refer to as "archiving for posterity". and somewhere before that: > before wiping the drive
Well, then you should strive for several byte-by-byte identical copies on cheap media. This would be BD-R in my case. But magnetic disks are cheaper per GB. They just bundle more risk in one casing and their regular operation imposes more risk on existing data. The byte-by-byte identical copies would be made from the verified backup images or media. 3 at least. I guess both types should be stored in a dark, dry, and moderately warm place. I use CD since 1998, DVD since 2004, BD since 2008. None of them regularly fails on me when it comes to reading old content. deloptes and others have different experiences. (My bet is on dying drives rather than dying media ...) In any case, you should not use old, possibly worn-off storage devices for storing original data. Get some dedicated new stuff. USB stick for permanent storage seems inappropriate, too. Have a nice day :) Thomas
