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From: davef@brspyr1.BRS.Com (Dave Fiske)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 5.25" Diskettes for Storage
Message-ID: <6107@brspyr1.BRS.Com>
Date: 22 Jun 89 20:59:10 GMT
References: <2515@lll-lcc.UUCP>
Organization: BRS Info Technologies, Latham NY
Lines: 30

In article <2515@lll-lcc.UUCP>, rzh@lll-lcc.UUCP (Roger Hanscom) writes:
> 
>   Just recently, I discovered that about twenty 5.25" floppies
> written some 6-7 years ago are completely munged.  The content
> of the diskettes was no *major* loss, but it is particularly
> distressing to me to find that the life span of magnetic media
> is so short.  What are folks doing to preserve electronically
> readable data?  Is there a more permanent solution?  Do WORM
> compact disks offer more permanence??   

Some years ago, I heard a talk by someone from OCLC, which is a center
which has been putting library cataloguing information online  for
quite a few years.  They used magnetic tapes for storage, so his
experience may not be precisely the same for floppies, but he said that
noticeable deterioration can occur within 10 years, and that they deal
with this by reading each tape and writing out a fresh copy once a
year.

Since floppies probably tend to get subjected more to varying magnetic
and  environmental conditions, I would expect they would also show
deterioration over long periods of time.  For most people, this
probably isn't a problem, since files from, say, 5 years ago, are
probably irrelevant by  now.  But if you have some very important
archival or backup files, it probably wouldn't hurt to make fresh
copies every few years.
-- 
"MY SPACE ALIEN HUBBY DUMPED ME      Dave Fiske  (davef@brspyr1.BRS.COM) 
 FOR A YOUNGER WOMAN, SOBS WIFE"
                                     Home:  David_A_Fiske@cup.portal.com
Headline from Weekly World News             CIS: 75415,163  GEnie: davef