What's the best long-term storage solution?

[Polishwonder74]

In your opinion, what is the safest/smartest way to preserve my files for decades? I've got a lot of stuff that I made (papers, projects, theses, etc. . .) at college, plus lots of other cool stuff that I'll want to keep forever. I was thinking burning to CD's or DVD's, but I'm not sure how long I've got 'till they photodegrade. Hard drives can fail, etc etc etc. . . What do you guys suggest that I work towards to make sure I don't lose all this crap that I've accumulated?

 

[n0cmonkey]

DVD. Keep it in a safe, secure, dry, cool place. Reburn every 2-3 years.

 

[nageov3t]

acid-free paper

 

[Calin]

Paper rules. You could try also pergament or papirus. There are success stories for papers and pergaments and papiruses that are thousands of years old.
Yeah, carving in rock would be much more resistant to passing time, but it is nowhere as convenient.


Calin

 

[Polishwonder74]

I suppose that isn't a terrible idea, really. Print everything out and store it on paper. How long to CD's and DVD's typically last for?

 

[LiLithTecH]

CD & DVD media was touted to last for 50-100 years.

A recent finding was that the adhesive (3m/Dupont) that is used to bind the
media to the disk begins to deteriorate immediately after it is burned and
generally will fail between 15-20 years.

Rock in a cave seems to be the way to go.