How to store digital files for posterity? (hundreds of years)
I have some family videos and audios and I want to physically save them for posterity so that it lasts for periods like 200 years and more. This allows great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren to have access.
From the research I did, I found that the longest-lasting way to physically store digital content is through CD-R gold discs, but it may only last 100 years. From what I researched, the average lifespan of HDs and SSDs is no more than 10 years.
I came to the conclusion that the only way to ensure that the files really pass from generation to generation is to record them on CDs and distribute them to the family, asking them to make copies from time to time.
It’s crazy to think that if there were suddenly a mass extinction of the human species, intelligent beings arriving on Earth in 1000 years would probably not be able to access our digital content. While cave paintings would probably remain in the same place.
What is your opinion?
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Digital? No. You want durable, you go physical. Print the photos with real archive-quality processes and materials. Same for video and audio, but on film. Keep a 3-2-1 backup in climate-controlled environments.
If you really really want digital, the media doesn’t matter, because you’ll always have to migrate to current formats. Someone will have to be actively maintaining it.
Yeah, I’d say at least every ten years I’ve replaced all my media. Hard drive failures, tape upgrades, physical media changes, tech just moves so quickly. Even if the media survives 100 years, will we still have the tech to read it?
will we still have the tech to read it?
Probably, if VLC is still around.
Telnet still exists and you can still access a telnet server running on 40 year old hardware
One thing to keep in mind: if someone gave you a 5.25" floppy disk with this type of data on it, even if the data was perfectly readable, would you have any way to do it? You’d need to hunt down someone whos into retro technology and hope you can figure out how to decode the information. The format itself became obsolete, so even if the data would theoretically be accessible, the means to access said data may not be.
Point is, what are the chances that CD drives will be around in hundreds of years outside of a museum or personal collection? They’re already becoming more and more uncommon after only a couple decades. But there really isn’t a great solution to this, especially when it comes to video, because you can’t just print it out.
Side note, are you sure that CD Golds are more durable than M-Disk?
I believe you’re approaching this from the wrong angle - this isn’t a tech problem, this is a people problem.
save them for posterity so that it lasts for periods like 200 years and more. This allows great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren to have access.
Instead of trying to get media that can last 200+ years, just teach your kids and grandkids the importance of keeping your family legacy alive. This will be way more effective than any medium you can come up it. Storage technologies change but the data remains the same, the future generations should be able to gradually upgrade storage mediums as necessary so the information keeps existing.
Cave paintings aren’t video or audio. They’re pictures. You can print your photos or print grabs from your videos.
If you print every frame of the video in a translucent film and then project them one after the other really fast, it’s like real video!
Stuff like https://www.mdisc.com/ exist which claims 1000+ years of lifespan… Kinda difficult to assert whether it’s true or not tho.
A lot of the modern MDisc media is made with organic dyes as Verbatim has more or less given up on the format. Be warned. https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/yu4j1u/psa_verbatim_no_longer_sells_real_m_discs_now/
This is not true. All Verbatim BD-Rs (including VERBAT-IMe-000) use inorganic dyes. It’s stated by several different people in the comments in your link.
Just make sure the NSA gets their copy and you are golden. /s
The two extremes:
- Keep it alive on ZFS with frequent scrubbing. Review best practice every couple of years in case it’s time to migrate it to holograms or whatever,
- Clay tablets.
Micro-film
Digital data is extremely short lived. Unless it’s being maintained well and copied, it will decay regardless of storage medium fairly rapidly. And as you point out data interface techniques are themselves quite short lived. Storing data as something accessible without specialist technology, so plainly readable, instructions on how to build the reader and decode the data, etc.
Future technology may improve this by having historians interested in historical records wanting ways to recover it, at least.
Print the videos onto film. Modern film can last pretty well.
Afaik it’s either LTO tapes or a RAIDZ array, I like ZFS on Linux for that matter. Check the TrueNAS Scale distro for example. There are different raid levels, I use raid5…
I was thinking transfer the video to movie film negatives, including audio, but apparently those only last 50 years under optimal conditions.
Vinyl records last up to 100 years under optimal conditions. That would be for audio obviously.
Not much longer than the gold CD-Rs, but they won’t be unreadable digital grey goo either.
The Wikipedia article Digital preservation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_preservation mentions M-DISC a media form for DVD, BR, BRXL that is supposed to last 1000 years, but the polycarbonate plastic used is only rated for 100 years.
