The Lifespan of Storage Media

When we save a piece of data to a hard drive or record something to a CD or DVD, often there is an assumption that it is then safe and it wont ever be lost. Many people feel that so long as they dont delete or erase the file, or the storage medium isn't damaged, it will remain on there intact forever.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Over time stored data loses its 'integrity' and can eventually become unusable unless care is taken to preserve it. Take for example an audio tape or a video cassette. If it is not adequately stored, the tape will become oxidised and will deteriorate, losing the data stored on it. The same goes for digital media. Items stored on hard drives are not immune to being lost. A power surge, for example, could damage a hard drive permanently.

To give you a good overview of this, a chart which details the lifespan of storage media has been designed by Mike Wirth at Crashplan. It compares the expected lifespans of popular media types used over the last 100 years to save different kinds of information: computer data, photos, videos and audio. Ultimately, it advocates for saving data onto the 'cloud' rather than on physical media.

Check it out!