Originally posted by OregonJim In 300 years, nobody will even know what a CD was, let alone have a device to read one. There is no such thing as "long term digital storage" because digital storage formats are a rapidly moving target. If you want your photos to outlast you, print them!
Printing is indeed a good idea. Use archival paper and place them in archival sleeves in an archival box. They should be good for about 200 years or so...
On the other hand, I have been involved with some FORMAL digital archiving and it is possible to archive digital. Archival Gold CD are indeed and acceptable media as long as you are aware that transferring them will of course be necessary some day.
No-one has ever said that it will not take work to preserve those archives. Not to pick on this response in particular, but the view that you should not archive to CD because it is going to be obsolete is ... shortsighted.
Thinking this through... if a standard CD will give up the ghost in 5 years, purchase a 300 year CD and archive away. This way, for the shhort term you are relatively safe. Reccomendation is also to store them in archival sleeves or cases and place them in archival boxes.
When the "new" media arrives, whatever it is, use it and transfer the data from your archival CD. But use an archival form of THAT media and when IT rolls over, rinse and repeat. Leave instructions to your kids/family/etc. to do the same.
No-one said we were going to be reading CDs 300 years from now. No-one said that archiving data does not take work, planning, and thought. There is little or no chance that any data will survive if, during the current technology generation, steps are not taken to preserve the data. Saying the current technology will not be used in the future and is therefore no go is tantamount to giving up completely on the concept of any possibility that the data will last.
Have it your way. For my part I'll make the attempt.
There is no way we know what the media of 300 years from now looks like. But we sure as HELL will not have anything to put on that media if we don't take some actually simple steps to preserve the data as best we can today AND accept the fact that some work will have to be done in future to continue the preservation of the data.
That said, I am using MAM as well as external hard drives. Oh, and I am printing on archival paper, placing in archival sleeves and storing in archival boxes.
woof