4 ms·
Archival LTO has a life of 30 years (under proper storage) - likely longer but they "warranty" for 30 years. The issue is that anything you made like that woul
by noir_lord 1y ago
Archival LTO has a life of 30 years (under proper storage) - likely longer but they "warranty" for 30 years.
The issue is that anything you made like that would need to be forward readable because storage capacity demands only ever increase over time.
i.e. imagine a 1.44MB 80 year floppy disk from 1985, while it'd last til 2065 no one would use it in 2025 because you'd need about a thousand of them to hold a modern 4K video
- namibj 1y agoYou need to very carefully dry it, possibly with a re spooling to destress, and then keep it at or below 18C, but it has to be stable. Though the same applies to polycarbonate/acrylic-glue BD-R. If you do that they'll keep for centuries, at least the tapes that use oxygen resistant magnetic particles like BaFe (not MP). Calcium oxide aka burnt lime is a cheap non-toxic (but caustic!) desiccant that can keep an e.g. paint can dry for centuries.
- noir_lord 1y agoAye, I suspect under perfect conditions, one write, optimal storage conditions it'll be more than the 30 years some tapes are specced for. I find it entertaining that high speed magnetic tape - a technology in the consumer space that is basically obsolete is still one of the optimal solutions for "I have hundreds of terabytes of data I need to be able to read in 15 years".