Vince here:
To Phil Greatorex,
Hi, Phil!
I don't trust what are essentially over-dramatic claims by the
manufacturers of these media, and in view of the astoundingly different
ways the media are used, the claims must have huge error bars anyway. I do
a lot of retro-computing work rescuing stuff rom the back of cupboards in
dusty museums etc, and I am constantly astounded by just how reliable media
seems to be.
Some figures you can trust because I can verify them myself.
124 5.25 inch magazine cover discs ranging from August 1989 to May 1992
recently transferred to CD: Failure rate 0.0%
45 Amstrad format 3" discs from 1988 to 1995 recently tested. Failure rate
20.0% (9).
200 (mainly Sony) 3.5" discs from 1990-1993 recently tested (about 50% of
which are DD). Failure rate 1.5% (3)
No failures so far among CD-ROMs going back to 1993.
I never use tape because I have experienced 100% failure with it (although
perhaps I am unlucky!)
Now I should stress that I always keep my media as perfectly as possible
(airtight, cool storage away from direct sunlight, magnetic fields etc),
and I also assume that all storage will evaporate immediately I turn my
back, so my current method of storage is a full back-up to CD-R every month
(its painful with about 35 Gb of data), and incremental back-ups every
week. Every other copy of the monthly back-up is taken and stored at my
mothers house about 12 miles away.
Hope this helps.
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