Odd Magnetic Media question

From: Dwight Elvey <elvey_at_hal.com>
Date: Thu Mar 30 16:26:58 2000

"Zane H. Healy" <healyzh_at_aracnet.com> wrote:
>
> Now let's say I've got a brand new box of 8mm tapes that have been sitting
> around still sealed for 8 years. Again, they've been stored in the proper
> conditions more or less. So are they still good? Is the 2 year number for
> their ability to hold data, or the actual physical lifespan. Anyone have
> any ideas?

Hi
 I think the 2 year is for reasonable useage.
New tapes should last for 30 to 40 years at least
with good storage. Tapes with data may not fare as well.
One of the biggest problem with old tapes is print
through. This is particularly true of the thinner
tapes. This is where some of the signal form
one layer in the spool shows up on another layer.
I've seen this on old audio tapes.
 I've seen troubles with old floppies lately also.
What is the problem is the glue they use to hold
the inner surface pads onto the disk folder. It
bleeds through to the floppies over time and gets on
the disk. It then gets onto the heads as well ( sticky
stuff ). I resently recovered some data from some
disk that suffered from this and I had to clean the
heads between each disk. You could see that it did
some damage to the disk as well but I was able to
get data off with multiple tries.
 Use short length tapes for long term storage and
you should get more years than you'll live.
Always make backups of backups and store in a
different location.
Dwight
Received on Thu Mar 30 2000 - 16:26:58 BST