gnetwerker's Journal: 50+ Year Archival Storage

Three things have happened recently: 1) I'm finally throwing out the old, unreadable magtapes, 8" floppies, and other dead media from early in my computing career; 2) I've stopped using my film cameras, and have switched to 100% digital imaging; and 3) My baby daughter was born.

This (and this recent thread) has led me to think about how I can best preserve all of those pictures, videos, music clips, etc, given that I'm not the Library of Congress and I don't have $100m to spend.

The debate about CD-ROM longevity doesn't seem to be settled, and most people don't think you should count on a CD-ROM lasting even 5 years. I'm working on the assumption that this data needs to be readable in 30-50 years. Kodak claims that "with 95% confidence, 95% of the population of KODAK Writable CD Media will have a data lifetime of greater than 217 years if stored in the dark at 25C, 40% Relative Humiditiy after being recorded in a KODAK PCD Writer 200".

Well, you'll pardon me if I don't completely believe them. What are /.ers doing for long-term archival storage? Nitrogen-filled jewel cases? Deep-freeze CD jukeboxes? Microfilm? Enquiring minds want to know.