On Mon, 1 Nov 2010 23:09:10 -0000
"George Booth" wrote:

Maybe someone will correct me out there, but surely we now have large enough
solid state hard drives (no moving parts Ma) and those things should go on
and on *bit like some NG users* Oh the irony.

Possibly.

But I've been in the computer software business for (gulp) just under
40 years. I have lots of backups of this that and t'other for which
there are no longer drives that accept or understand the medium. Some
/very/ fancy programs to work on the data, that don't work on current
hardware too.

If you want to store it for genuinely long periods put it on paper.
It's the only medium that stands a chance of surviving and being
readable in the distant future. Not a great one at that, but it's
still the best we've got :-((



Mike

"Mike Causer" wrote in message
news:20101101235226.529efdf9@surya...
On Mon, 1 Nov 2010 23:09:10 -0000
"George Booth" wrote:

Maybe someone will correct me out there, but surely we now have large
enough
solid state hard drives (no moving parts Ma) and those things should go
on
and on *bit like some NG users* Oh the irony.

Possibly.

But I've been in the computer software business for (gulp) just under
40 years. I have lots of backups of this that and t'other for which
there are no longer drives that accept or understand the medium. Some
/very/ fancy programs to work on the data, that don't work on current
hardware too.

If you want to store it for genuinely long periods put it on paper.
It's the only medium that stands a chance of surviving and being
readable in the distant future. Not a great one at that, but it's
still the best we've got :-((



Mike



Hello Mike

they were my comments about solid state hard drives: my premise was that
standard disk drives are mechanical in other words lots of physical spinning
and movemenet when finding data. In fact the things are fantastic peices of
precision engineering howevr they do spin rather rapidly hence when moving
an external when operating you can feel the gyroscopic properties of the
device. I know solid state is much faster with no physical movement bar
electrons and surely that makes its longevity far more favourable than a
disk drive with far less power consumption?

You caused me to doubt my own words but after looking around I see they are
being marketed anyhow. But I think with forty years in the business I'd take
note of your opinion. Cheers

http://www.crucial.com/uk/promo/inde...ssd&click=true