Storage Time Limits - CD-ROM

[voxmagna]

The thing I always think about with electronic media is its portability and compatibility with other hardware 'readers'. As the reader side evolves, backwards compatibility can sometimes be lost.

Look at the tracking issues which made certain floppies and CD's unreadable, in most except the original writer. Who checks their writers to make sure they are writing within the laid down tolerances? You only find out when trying to recover your older archive on other machines, or 'upgraded' your hardware and OS.

The point has been made already that a lamp and lens wrapped around a piece of fixed celluloid film is simple, timeless and would even work at high altitude/temperature/emp/vibration/high pressure/humidity etc etc - unlike most media drives.

Could archive media of the future be some form of self executing storage with integral OS, lens, light modulator projector and infinite or solar powered supply?
I wonder what evidence will remain on bits of plastic in the distant future?

[Mike_PEAT]

Here's some good CDR tips:

http://www.apogeephoto.com/feb2003/straudt2_2003.shtml

[eric s]

Mike_PEAT

That link has some very good advice. I knew most of it, but not all. Thanks for posting it.