Posts by Techno Musing

Wanna keep your data for 1,000 YEARS? No? Hard luck, HDS wants you to anyway

Re: Unreadable File Formats

...or store the documents and/or other content in multiple formats. That's what preservationists do.

Stuff that no longer exists

Did you know that the Oil & Gas industry (and other survey agencies an preservation societal organizations) has warehouses full of media (tapes, film, paper, disks, discs, etc.) with data on it of places and things that no longer exist.

Imagine, pictures, surveys, seismic data, sensor data, and so forth, of places, objects, sites and views that will never exist again. This data has been deemed a national treasure by the US Government and needs to be preserved forever, or as long as possible.

How many of you know what Mt. Rushmore looked like before it became a monument?

Re: 1000 years?

Funny you use this analogy. M-Disc is "rock" based material.

Re: Compatibility across media

Milleniata announced last week that M-Disc technology is now at 3 layer BDXL 100GB and is 100% compatible with standard drives. Though most drives today can now write the older DVD M-Disc. With Blu-ray, there is now distinction.

Everything centers and gravitates to the most common high volume capabilities.

Re: Take a hint from nature

The last article I read on DNA storage, it cost $35K/MB to write.

Re: If these BD discs are like DVD-Rs that I used in the early '00s

Don't compare "consumer" grade media to archive/enterprise grade media. Huge difference in materials used and longevity.

Re: The discs last 1000 years

It doesn't matter! With removable media, you can throw the drive away, buy a shiny new one, and still read your data. This has been working with CDs since 1982.

Re: 1,000 years

If the bits (or pages) are gone, you can't even argue your point. You won't even get to prove it's garbage.

Re: 1000 years?

Lots of questions... Why do you migrate data in the first place? Tape-to-tape, disk-to-disk...

USUALLY! Because one technology or format has become obsolete OR something is wearing out/degrading. The format that comes from the original Compact Disc (CD) is still supported and working today in these new devices. That's over 30 years. What digital technology is still backwards compatible to 1982 (beside a digital clock), both in data & media format, and you can readily/easily buy today?

If you didn't have to migrate your data because you can still easily read it, use it, have it supported with no special device or service, didn't take up power or cooling, why would you migrate? This is the media I'm talking about.

You might still buy systems and drives for speed, density, supporting new formats (with support of old formats), etc.

HDS bigwigs gaze into optical storage at IEEE storage confab

Re: Comparing apples with oranges

"No presentation is complete without the presenter presenting it".

The take away from this factoid is that the "format and the medium" is still compatible today. Materials improve over time, just look at the M-Disc content. Just like a tape or disk from 31 years ago is greatly improved today, but try using that 31 year old tape or disk today, even if the bits are still readable.

GE brings holographic storage back from the dead

Micro-Hologram is not the only architecture

Thanks Chris for bringing this subject some much needed attention. There has been a bit of a "quiet" period in this space, but rest assured, there is exciting development being done in the labs and research facilities to advance this technology. I posted a response to your blog here,

http://blogs.hds.com/technomusings/2011/08/a-true-holographic-system-would-be-disruptive.html

I describe what Hitachi is cooking with Holographic storage and how it compares with GE's architecture. Cheers.