Windows 7 - Facing a data apocalypse: The limitations of digital storage

Borg 386 · 10-14-2011

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Donovan Colbert explores his deepest fears about what could happen to all that data being backed up. Will imperfect methodologies have to do or are we facing a data disaster?

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The complexities of maintaining backed-up data for archive in a digital format are fraught with all kinds of potential for oversight and error. It isn’t practical to have a human verify each bit of data manually, but my experience has been that the perpetuation of “Garbage In/Garbage Out” corrupted data can render backup unusable even when all automated systems claim the data is in pristine condition. The volume of data is so large we simply must rely on automatic verification to ensure data integrity. That is a problem in itself.

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Isn’t that disturbing when we think about the limitations of current methodologies for backing up digital content? We may lose more information in the next 200 years due to bit-rot and bad backups than has been created in the entire 2000 years preceding us.

Full Article:
Facing a data apocalypse: The limitations of digital storage | TechRepublic

Corazon · 10-14-2011

When I think about just how much useless, and historically insignificant, mundane junk is among all the data in the world nowadays, somehow I'm not really that worried.

Usually dedicated archives have a pretty good grip on this, whereas consumers...eh...back to what I said at the beginning.

Durahl · 10-18-2011

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Isn’t that disturbing when we think about the limitations of current methodologies for backing up digital content? We may lose more information in the next 200 years due to bit-rot and bad backups than has been created in the entire 2000 years preceding us.

Like Corazon already mentioned not every p.o.s. needs to preserved for generations in the 3rd millennium and after.
Facebook: "Aww... My pooch just crapped into my shoes, he's soooo adorable when he does that!"

I also have no doubt that information worth preserving ( technologies, art, history, etc... ) will be preserved in an appropriate manner.