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The art of archiving by Michael Maunder, from Ag27 |
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Page 4 0f 9 |
So too with the magnetic medium in disk format - floppy or hard drives. Thirty years used to be the accepted reliable lifetime; this is a generation in human terms but still not permanent. The technology is still evolving and with the reliability of data transmission improving all the time, any modern hard drive can be relied on for intermediate storage times, provided that the technology remains available to read them. CDs and allied technology are claimed to have a life of up to two centuries and nobody can dispute that from practical experience as none have been around that long. The critical factor in an ordinary CD is the aluminium (silver) side. Although this has a protective coating, it is prone to damage and the aluminium will eventually corrode. When this happens, the light is no longer reflected properly and the CD becomes unreadable. Writeable CDs are much better because the working layer is usually gold. These are fine for their intended purpose of multiple editing over a period of time. It is certainly worthwhile considering the longer storage capability as a one-off burning in for storage of important pictures. CDs and DVDs come into the same category as floppies and hard drives when it comes to future technology being capable of reading from them when they themselves become obsolete. With software we get into some very interesting areas. Operating systems are being constantly upgraded and it doesn’t take long before old records become totally unintelligible. Would you believe that this is being written in LocoScript, a DOS-based system? As a writing package, it does everything needed, and it doesn’t misbehave if the main operating system crashes. Fifteen years of company files and records are conveniently stored in 30MB of space on a Zip drive, a totally different order of security and economy from the superfast monsters seemingly needed today to write even the simplest letter. I listen to my favourite music from the CD drive, and email this piece to the editor while the DOS original sits there secure in its original state on an external (backed-up) drive to be re-edited on the same screen, if necessary. The moral of this tale should be clear: the latest technology is not the be-all and end-all of picture crunching - it just makes it slicker. Next Page >> |
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