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new DVD "M-Disc" perfect for archive material

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Renegade:
If you're worried about archiving data for more than 20 years, I'd be as concerned about how available reader devices might be.  For example, even  if your old Iomega Zip disks still contain their data, it has probably already become a bit of a problem finding a working Zip drive. I wouldn't be surprised if it would be easier to find something to read an old 8 inch floppy.

Of course, DVD readers will probably be around for a much longer time than Zip drives, but it's still something to consider if you 're serious about long, long term archiving.

-mwb1100 (July 19, 2012, 04:14 PM)
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Yeah, this is what is going to end up pushing us all grudgingly to the cloud, I'm afraid.
-daddydave (July 19, 2012, 04:29 PM)
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Good points.

What was storage in 1992? Geez... It's been a while... :)

ewemoa:
I was wondering myself about SD cards - if they're rarely used, would they be suitable for archiving. The format looks like it's going to be there for the foreseeable future.
-tomos (July 19, 2012, 12:59 PM)
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I considered using SD cards and tried for a while, but like HDDs I found that they could easily lead to complete sudden unrecoverability of data -- e.g.  via static electricity.  One zap and poof  :down:

As I understand it, the situation with optical media is a bit different -- typically optical media don't suddenly die.  Unless shattered I suppose :)

ewemoa:
Below is one of the reviews I came across:

  http://www.amazon.com/M-DISC-DVD-Cake-Box-Pack/product-reviews/B005Y4NKE0/
-ewemoa (July 19, 2012, 08:26 AM)
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in fairness,
that sounds like it could well be a problem with the burner he's using, rather than the discs.
-tomos (July 19, 2012, 08:56 AM)
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As I understand it, the maker's of the M-Disc have some sort of agreement with LG for LG to produce drives that work with M-Discs.  It would be unfortunate if what was described in the review is common.

I managed to find the other problematic report:

  http://www.cdrlabs.com/Reviews/lg-bp40ns20-portable-6x-blu-ray-disc-rewriter/All-Pages.html

Of course, the BP40NS20's biggest feature is its support for Millenniata's M-DISC technology. Offering greater longevity and durability than standard DVD's, the M-DISC's rock-like material provides up to 1000 years of permanent data storage. This really doesn't mean much, though, if the burn process fails or the discs are not completely readable as was the case with the BP40NS20. Hopefully this is an issue with our drive or something that can be fixed with a firmware update and not an indicator of what we can expect from LG's M-READY drives.

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Having seen a couple such reports (I think they are for different drives made by the same manufacturer) I became less interested in testing M-Discs at the moment -- I happen to have purchased an LG burner that's supposed to burn M-Discs (without knowing about M-Discs), so I am pretty interested in things working out well.

ewemoa:
I'm not sure if tape technology is all that affordable, but FWIW, there appears to be consideration given to the idea of future compatibility.  For example, from a Wikipedia page for Linear Tape-Open:

An Ultrium drive reads data from a cartridge in its own generation and at least the two prior generations.
An Ultrium drive writes data to a cartridge in its own generation and to a cartridge from the immediate prior generation in the prior generation format.

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I've not been a tape fan, but perhaps it's not likely that there will be other alternatives before long...

Renegade:
I've always had good luck with LG drives.

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