[Digikam-users] [?OT] Image organisation query

[Daniel Bauer]

On Sonntag, 5. August 2007, Volker Guelke wrote:
> Hello Francesco,
>
> Francesco Scaglioni schrieb:
> > What worried me about hard drives is that they have moving
> > parts and maybe prone to failure (I want to leave my
> > pictures for my children in the future).  That is why I was
> > looking at optical storeage (multiple copies) but needed a
> > structured way to do it.  Certainly a USB har-drive would be
> > the simplest (along with either rysnc or unison).
>
> if you plan to archive your pictures to optical medias, remember
> that normal CD-R and DVD-R are not very good regarding keeping data
> over the years. IMHO CDs are good for a maxuimum of 7 years and DVDs
> for a maximum of 3 years, but only if they are good burns.
>
> I just saw special Archive-CD/DVD with a golden layer, which are
> designed to keep the data for 100-200 years (i.e. from Kodak). I
> personally think about using these medias to archive my pictures.
>
> Alternativly the DVD-RAM medias should be much better regarding
> their quality, than normal DVD-Medias. Currently I archive on this
> kind of optical media.

Hello,

I have not followed the threads during the past two weeks because I was 
abroad, so sorry, if my answer eventually repeats something already said...

If you really want to archive image data "secure" for the future you'll have 
to expose them on a sensitive film material (i.e. negative film or 
microfilm). This is still the *only* available method to conserve optical 
information.

No matter what digital media you use - you can be sure that in only a few 
years there will be no machines available anymore that are capable to read 
and process the data. Just think on 	punchcards, 8 and 5.25" diskettes, 
magtapes (the large reels you can see in old James Bond moovies...). Look at 
your video cassettes that are almost completely replaced by DVDs, think about 
the CDs, which are already a phased-out model, replaced by the DVDs that are 
already in process to get replaced by new DVD standards before they even 
became a real standard....

The same will happen to every new digital data carrier too, the cycle will be 
even faster.

Optical information stored on sensitive film will always be restorable as long 
as there is light (provided the film was stored in an appropriate 
environment).

If you store digitally and want to be sure that you can still use the data in 
10, 20, 30... years, you will have to re-save the data approx. every two 
years, then using the latest available techniques/medias and eventually 
transform them into future file formats or you'll risk to sit there one day 
with a piece of plastic that nobody knows anymore what to do with it - even 
if its golden and from Kodak :-)

enjoy the sunny sunday.

Daniel

-- 
Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Switzerland
professional photography: http://www.daniel-bauer.com
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