<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/>
</head><body>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span>Any flash storage is bad for long term storage.  The floating gate weakens over time if not periodically refreshed by the internal controller.  And the more program/erase cycles and to a lesser extent read cycles on a gate, the weaker it gets with respect to power off retention.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span>Of course all mediums cave to entropy over time.  However flash has a faster curve than most physical mediums.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span><span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span><span>The main rule of backups though is backup to multiple medium and routinely verify all copies.  No mechanism can survive passive maintenance.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0;"><span><span><br/></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; ">-Alan</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; "> </p>
<div style="margin: 5px 0px 5px 0px;">
<br/>On July 28, 2012 at 12:59 PM Andrew Wade <andrewiwade@gmail.com> wrote:
<br/>
<br/>
<div style="position: relative;">
<blockquote style="margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 10px; border-left: solid 1px blue;">
I am working on archiving some of my pictures/videos/etc. through the years.   I'm trying to decide on what storage media would be best for this.
<div>
 
</div>
<div>
The main consensus that I've seen on the internet is that the optical disc (Dvd-DL) is still going to be the winner.  The problem is that once you get a scratch on it, you may not be able to access that 1MB picture.   I've had this happen before.
</div>
<div>
 
</div>
<div>
What do you all think about the following mediums for 10+ year  (and the tech format itself still being around - like zip disk, etc.)
</div>
<div>
 
</div>
<div>
SDHC/XD  Memory Cards  (Fat32)
</div>
<div>
Optical Disk (DVD +-R, CD, DVD-DL)
</div>
<div>
Hard Drive (Put in storage; has to be in a filesystem that supports >4GB for individual files)
</div>
<div>
USB Flash Drive(s) (Fat 32)
</div>
<div>
 
</div>
<div>
and any others.
</div>
</blockquote>
<br/> 
</div>
</div>
</body></html>