Is obsolescence inevitable for data storage devices soon?

Murrmurr

Murrmurr

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Sacramento, California
I want to make a sort of history book for my former foster son, Paxton. It'll be about his life with ol' "Uncle Frank" from when he was a 3-week-old infant til just before he turned 3-years-old. A memory book, Michelle's saying.

It's going to include photos, and I'm wondering if I should print them all out or put them on a data stick. There's dozens of photos. Over 100, for sure, and even if I pared them down to only absolutely the most significant ones, there'd still be a couple dozen at the very least.

But let's say he gets this book 10 or 12 years from now and it's something he'll look at again and again over the years...do you think he'd be able to view a SanDisk or Fit Plus, or any USB drive decades from now?
 

Sure just a decade from now but long term digital data storage within physical memory media is huge issue much discussed and changing every few years. Best to web research for current ideas. Today individuals might use cloud storage, however such has a continuous storage fee and there are always possibilities a company with such services regardless of how prominent now may not be around in decades. After someone dies or is unable to continue to pay storage fees, memory is erased if no one comes forward.
 
David777 said:
Sure just a decade from now but long term digital data storage within physical memory media is huge issue much discussed and changing every few years. Best to web research for current ideas. Today individuals might use cloud storage, however such has a continuous storage fee and there are always possibilities a company with such services regardless of how prominent now may not be around in decades. After someone dies or is unable to continue to pay storage fees, memory is erased if no one comes forward.
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Thanks, David.

Yeah, he's only 5yrs-old now, so I need to think 20 years from now. I don't mind getting them printed but it would be a lot easier for him to just have them all in one compact place.

And yeah, yeah, definitely not The Cloud.
 

bobcat48 said:
I think as long as they are in a digital format, that when a newer storage technology arrives, they should be easily transferrable, far more so than going from analog to digital or from print photographs to digital.
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Agreed. Frank, I’d still print it, maybe in a simplified form, and a dozen or so photos so he can look at it before he has the ability to appreciate the full story book.
 
No"thing" is guaranteed to be forever but, IMO, hard copy will outlast anything digital. I have paper letters that are over 200 years old, yet I've forever lost files stored on 5" floppy disks in the 1990s. OTOH, within your stated time window I would guess that a DVD would be safe. JMHO
 
Tommy said:
No"thing" is guaranteed to be forever but, IMO, hard copy will outlast anything digital. I have paper letters that are over 200 years old, yet I've forever lost files stored on 5" floppy disks in the 1990s. OTOH, within your stated time window I would guess that a DVD would be safe. JMHO
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I lost a bunch of stuff I downloaded onto a floppy disk, too. That's when I learned a new word: "degradable".
 
Indeed media formats come and go and planning for archival can be a pain. Here's another idea to think about. Have the parents create a GMail account for him. Create the memories as a series of emails to him with media attachments. You, his parents, and anyone else they want to include, can continue to send emails to the account to commemorate other memories, special events, family events or historical events. It's a great way to record your thoughts and feelings at that time - especially if you write directly to him in the first person. Then, someday, graduation, 18th birthday, or whenever, the account can be turned over to him with the suggestion to read it slowly, savoring each message and the associated pictures, videos etc. There's a pretty decent chance that GMail will still be around in another 10-15 years.
 

Is obsolescence inevitable for data storage devices soon?​

Maybe not obsolescence but definitely different. I use hard copy for things I want to preserve.
 
There's usually a way of bridging the kind of gap you are talking about. If there is a need to transfer data from one storage type to another, it will be available. We can convert media from over a hundred years ago into digital data today. Data won't be lost, unless the storage device is destroyed.
 
JustDave said:
There's usually a way of bridging the kind of gap you are talking about. If there is a need to transfer data from one storage type to another, it will be available. We can convert media from over a hundred years ago into digital data today. Data won't be lost, unless the storage device is destroyed.
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That's a good point.
 
oldpop said:

Is obsolescence inevitable for data storage devices soon?​

Maybe not obsolescence but definitely different. I use hard copy for things I want to preserve.
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Yeah, I've decided to do all 3; store the files on my computer, print everything, and download it on an external drive.

I like @Dr. Jekyll 's email idea, except I'll set up the acct for Paxton on my PC.
 
I converted all my home movie VHS tapes to digital format. I have that on several hard drives and several USB drives. Whatever you decide have backups. I don't pay for online storage, and you never know what the company might do with the data, they can go out of business at anytime. You can store quite a bit online for free using Google or some other account.
 

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