Preserving Memory

This is ‘never been seen before’ video from a live concert.

sdhc-card.jpgIt’s possible you’re using your last computer with a hard drive. The hard drive is doomed. CDs sort of exists, but only because DVD players play them. Media for storage is changing rapidly. The idea of moving parts and noise aren’t appealing when the alternative has neither.

I was just looking at an ad for SDHC cards. That’s what the Canon Xsi uses. I have 2-8GB cards. In RAW, the largest files possible, I still get nearly 500 shots per card! These cards are going for under $20. Have we come to the point where it makes more sense to consider these cards as single use devices?

The bigger problem is the changing formats and standards mean some old media has been orphaned. That didn’t happen with paper! Even analog TVs have taken 60 years to finally become obsolete (next week).

My friend the producer from the secret location in the San Fernando Valley is working on some archived video of a Frank Sinatra performance. This is ‘never been seen before’ video from a live concert. It is on 2″ videotape–what was called “quad.” There are fewer than a handful of machines left, even out there, that can play this concert.

If you’ve got data on a floppy you may be facing the same problem. I first used the 8″ and 5.25″ then 3.5″ disks. I have a 3.5″ USB drive in a cabinet.

God knows what data has already been, or soon will be, lost. Moving to faster and better storage systems is good in the abstract, but we really need to protect data playback–and we’re really not.