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Not sure if they're still doing this, but as of a few years ago, the IRS was still using literal trucks full of tapes to transport data to backup facilities. Ta
by annzabelle 4mo ago
Not sure if they're still doing this, but as of a few years ago, the IRS was still using literal trucks full of tapes to transport data to backup facilities. Tapes are good for this because they don't degrade as quickly as hard drives, so if you're actually looking to do archival storage that will outlast the cloud provider of the decade, they are surprisingly practical.
- DANmode 4mo agoDoes tape still burn really easily? Or has that been fixed?
- Terr_ 4mo agoCompared to what what option, clay tablets of cuneiform? :p In terms of significant danger, perhaps you're thinking of nitrocellulose movie film that was phased out in the '50s.
- rcbdev 4mo agoWorking with tape storage was part of my high school education. So was mainframe job scheduling... Europe is as much ahead as it is behind.
- Tangurena2 4mo agoAs long as the janitors aren't using electric floor buffers, like NASA used to do, the tapes will last forever. However NASA ended up losing the data (from 1960s space missions) on the bottom 2 rows of tapes. It took a couple decades though. Example of those mag tapes: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/258/1034 https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/... How they were stored: https://www.hewlettpackardhistory.com/item/an-attractive-solution/ https://www.hewlettpackardhistory.com/item/an-attractive-sol... The newer stuff is a heck of a lot better than the olden stuff.