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You might want to skip the whole Blu-Ray generation

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f0dder:
I still don't see the point of using optical media for backups.

It's slow, it's annoying, and they're fragile. Harddisk based backups and tape storage for longterm is the only way to go, imho.

zridling:
Three problems I see.
(1) The longer you're in the [computing] game, the more expensive this problem becomes.
(2) The whole exercise is a time sink. I'm coming close to online storage of my essential data, but that opens an entirely new set of problems.
(3) HDs are the cheapest storage solution as Dormouse and f0dder pointed out, but yes, you do have to eventually transfer data between the next bus/controller generation, not to mention filesystems. I haven't had a HD failure in over a dozen years now, so I feel lucky in that regard.

Would it ever be possible to develop a universal format?
(4wd: holographic crystals! at the least dilithium wouldn't react with antimatter)

I have several data sets from the mid-80s that are ongoing and I've been transferring them since the 5.25 floppy disk days.

f0dder:
I have several data sets from the mid-80s that are ongoing and I've been transferring them since the 5.25 floppy disk days.-zridling (September 15, 2008, 06:37 AM)
--- End quote ---
And there really isn't any way around this, if you want to be able to access your data. It's not really a problem wrt. storage, since we get bigger and faster HDDs all the time - so it's not that big a deal migrating your dataset to a new storage solution (sure, it's going to take time when you need to move terabytes around, but at least that operation can be pretty much automated). File formats (and their associated programs...) are the real headache.

Armando:
File formats (and their associated programs...) are the real headache.
-f0dder (September 15, 2008, 06:48 AM)
--- End quote ---

That's why one shouldn't use obscure formats, and especially if they're closed.
Could be handy to keep a few old machines (like old laptops) still running old software, just in case...

4wd:
(4wd: holographic crystals! at the least dilithium wouldn't react with antimatter)
-zridling (September 15, 2008, 06:37 AM)
--- End quote ---

The technology exists for holographic crystals, (just a modified version of holographic disks).

Regarding using dilithium, it won't react with anti-matter as long as it's energised.  So if you happen to leave it lying on a bench in an anti-matter universe.....POOF!....there goes your data.

That's why one shouldn't use obscure formats, and especially if they're closed.
Could be handy to keep a few old machines (like old laptops) still running old software, just in case...
-Armando (September 15, 2008, 11:56 AM)
--- End quote ---

I would think that a few VMWare/VirtualPC/VirtualBox OS images on a HDD would be a more space efficient method rather than cluttering up your place with lot's of archaic hardware, (what am I saying :redface: ).

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