At 1:22 PM -0400 4/7/00, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>Denys wrote:
>>>CD-ROMs start going bad after 5 years.
>The only time tested media are the ancient ones: paper, parchment, stone
>etc. The question isn't only will the media be good in 15 years the question
>is also will the technology still exist to read CDs or tapes. (How many
>paper tape readers are being used today?)
>
>Joseph (displaying latent Luddite tendencies) Rosenblatt


If there is no media you can trust for long term storage, then you'll have
to continuously transfer the data to new, fresh media.

<plug>

Get a copy of XOVER and transfer your backups from the old media to fresh
new media. Do this on a rotation schedule. This year, transfer your old
tapes from 6 years ago to fresh new media. Next year, transfer your old
tapes from 5 years ago to fresh new media...and so on. You always have a
window moving forward, and none of your tapes are ever older than 5-6
years.

The nice thing about XOVER is that it can transfer data from almost any
media (reel, DDS, DLT) to almost any media. In addition, it can take, for
example, a 10 reel-to-reel backup set and transfer it to a 2 DDS set, or a
1 DLT set. Of course, it can go the other way too, but why would you?

Please see http://www.allegro.com/xover.html for more info.

</plug>


Barry Lake                                 [log in to unmask]
Allegro Consultants, Inc.                  www.allegro.com
(408)252-2330