by HungryGuy on November 22nd, 2009

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What is the most reliable long-term archival storage media: hard drive, CD, DVD, USB thumb drive, streaming mag tape, or something else?

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by More2Be on November 22nd, 2009
They'll all work the same. The media may outlive the technology support. For example, how many Beta tape readers are there? How many 8" floppy readers?
Whatever you choose, if you really want the data accessible in 20 years, use hardcopy (paper) in fireproof storage.
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- Good point!
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  by HungryGuy on November 22nd, 2009
- How do you make a hardcopy of a binary file? Or any file other than text and graphics?
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  by Mr_Natural Abstractor of the Quintessence on December 15th, 2009
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by acablue on November 22nd, 2009
Hard drives are prone to fail over time, CDs and DVDs can be easily scratched, so I guess that leaves USB flash drives as the most reliable electronic storage medium. They almost never fail because they rely on steady-state technology, as opposed to mechanical parts.
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- Thanks! But "I guess" doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in your answer :-/
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  by HungryGuy on November 27th, 2009
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by ERiddle on November 22nd, 2009
usb flash drives are (nearly) indestructable... i dropped mine off the roof (Don't ask why please) and there wasnt even a scratch on it.
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- Sounds reasonable.
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  by HungryGuy on November 27th, 2009
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by Frasat on November 22nd, 2009
hard drive
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by lunaboy on December 15th, 2009
Probably online storage if you can afford if. it's not too expensive and as long as the company stays afloat, you should be fine
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by allenmarx on December 15th, 2009
I would have to say hard drives in RAID mode would be the most reliable. RAID mode basically copies the same data across multiple hard drives, so if one fails, the data is still saved on the others.
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