![]() Sure, you want to archive your data - but not all data is equally important. 6: Selective archivingĬonsider what should be archived. Your only defense against this type of situation is data redundancy. My point is that even the most elaborate systems for protecting tapes will do nothing to guard against something as simple as a defective tape. A couple of years later, the organization needed to restore something off one of the archive tapes, only to find that the tape was bad. The vault was of good quality, and the tapes actually survived a flood even though the vault was submerged for a few days. I once did some work for an organization whose standard practice was to write its archives to tape and store the tapes in a fireproof vault. The problem is that the tape is often the only copy of the archived data. When data is ready to be moved to the archives, many organizations simply write the data to tape and then store the tape some place safe. If you use this approach, don’t forget to also archive copies of any necessary license keys. To avoid situations like this, you might find it helpful to archive not only data, but also copies of the installation media for the applications that created the data. The PFS Write file format was widely supported in the late 80s and early 90s, but today, there aren’t any applications around that can read the files. Although I was able to recover the data relatively easily, the documents were created by an application called PFS Write. For example, a few years ago I helped someone restore some document files that had been archived in the early 1990s. One major problem I have seen in the real world is archived data that’s in an obsolete format. Today, I store most of my archives on DVD, but because modern DVD drives will also read CDs, I haven’t needed to move my extremely old archives off CD and onto DVD. So be sure you review your archives at least once a year to see if anything needs to be migrated to a different storage medium.įor example, about 10 years ago, I realized that Zip drives were becoming extinct, so I transferred all of my archives to CD. On a similar note, your archive policies as well as the storage mechanisms you use for archiving data will undoubtedly change over time. Even so, it is important to try to pick those that have the best chance of being supported over the long term. ![]() Unfortunately, there’s no way to predict which types of storage devices will stand the test of time. ![]() Like the Zip drives themselves, parallel ports are also extinct, so I can’t read the data from the Zip disks. I still have my old Zip drive, but it connects to a PC via a parallel port. Today, though, Zip disks are pretty much extinct. They were a good choice at the time because they were relatively inexpensive and you could fit a whopping 100 MB of data on a single disk. For example, 15 years ago, I stored my archives on Zip disks. 2: Storage deviceĪnother major consideration is whether the storage device you are using for your archives will be accessible in a few years. In contrast, optical storage media will last indefinitely. A good quality tape should last for 10 years or more. As a result, tapes are rated according to their durability. Tapes tend to become demagnetized over time, which can lead to data loss. Since they will be stored for long periods of time, you must choose a type of media that will last as long as your retention policy dictates. The first thing to take into account is the storage medium you use for your archives. ![]() Note: This article is also available as a PDF download. This following list of considerations will help you improve the long-term usefulness of your archives. Given the rapid pace at which IT evolves, longevity can be a tall order. Unlike a typical backup, archives must be able to stand the test of time. Regardless of an organization’s reason for archiving data, the process can be trickier than it might appear at first. Some do so to comply with federal regulations, while others use archiving to facilitate their internal business requirements. Today, almost every organization archives at least some of its data. Here are some factors to keep in mind so you don't wind up with a collection of obsolete or irretrievable junk. 10 things you should know about long-term data archivingĪrchiving data is a far bigger challenge than performing ordinary backups.
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