Hi Peter, Check out this web site. http://www.delkin.com/products/archivalgold/scratcharmor.html
I read about this product in an article from a photography magazine. It sounds like these disks are great. My concern is that technology changes so rapidly that in 100 years no machine will be able to read any current disk. You are therefore quite correct that hard copy is the only reliable long-term solution. Museums and libraries keep specimens of obsolete technological hardware to enable the retrieval of media from the past. (8-track tapes, Beta format video tapes, early computer/word processor disks, etc.), but I don't want to rely on that being the case in 100 or 200 years. However, I don't want to create a mass of paper documents until I am certain that my research is absolutely correct. At that point, it seems a book would be in order. Printing out a revised hard copy every few months would be wasteful. That's where storage decisions come in. There has been a good variety of excellent advice, information, and ideas in this discussion. That's what I enjoy about this list! My personal choice is to go the external hard drive route for now. I like some of the ideas for automation and plan to check them out. BTW... When CDs were brand new, a clerk in a Radio Shack store showed me how fabulous the new medium was. "These things will last forever. You can use them as a drink coaster or even a Frisbee, and they will still play perfectly. You can't hurt them" Ah, if only!!! Judie -----Original Message----- From: Peter Haughton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 12:35 AM To: LegacyUserGroup@legacyfamilytree.com Subject: RE: [LegacyUG] Making a backup of my family file * Replies will be sent through Spamex to LegacyUserGroup@legacyfamilytree.com * For additional info click -> http://www.spamex.com/i/?v=10287484 CD-Rs do NOT have such reliability. The longest average life you could expect out of a standard CD-R nowadays would be two years, PROVIDED you kept it under truly ideal conditions, which most of us have no hope achieving. Good luck finding archival CD-Rs. I haven't seen any at all for over two years, and the dyes in all current CD-Rs are poor. The ONLY reliable long term storage is still printed paper, again assuming quality materials and storage. If you use CD-R backups, apart from doing them regularly, you need to check them immediately after burning, and in a DIFFERENT CD drive. This means you MUST have at least TWO CD drives in your computer (easy--CD burners are low cost). Nowadays make that one DVD burner (also burns CDs) and one DVD reader (also reads and maybe burns CDs). As soon as you cannot easily read CDs you have burnt, REPLACE the burner with a new one. Burners are cheap-- treat them as disposable the instant they play up. Peter --------------------------------------------------------- Peter Haughton [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------- Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp