summary-best long term data storage

Tom Mc Closkey (thomasm@nshs.edu)
Wed, 26 Mar 97 17:43:06 PST

These are the most pertinent comments about each form of storage. The
"votes" listed are when a response clearly favored one of the different
methods.

CD-R [11 votes]
-not a single bad CDR disk, cheapest per meg, good because most computers
have a CDROM, cost has dropped dramatically
-some CDR not read by some CDROMs, more difficult to get CDR to work than
zip,several disks have been damaged, easily scratched

zip [9 votes]
-small, cheap, portable, reliable , easy to use, convenient size (ie small
amount of data per disk in case it crashes), flexible , fast, becoming VHS
of data storage
-have heard of unrecoverable data, can get wiped by stray magnetic fields

magneto optical [4 votes]
-most reliable

file server [2 votes]

jazz [1 vote]
-less common than zip, unreliable

DVD digital video disks
-may make everything else obsolete

Two good sources of info are:

www.cdrmicro.com/faq.html for CDR information
and
earth.cnct.com/home/steveg/zipfaq19.html for zip drive information.

Thanks to everyone who responded,
Tom

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Thomas W. Mc Closkey, Ph. D.
Director, Flow Cytometry
North Shore University Hospital
Biomedical Research Center
350 Community Drive
Manhasset, Long Island, New York 11030
ph: 516-562-4844 [office]; 516-562-1135/4641 [lab]
3/26/97 6:06:18 PM
E-mail: thomasm@nshs.edu
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