Music Industry's 1990s Hard Drives Are Dying
The music industry faces archival challenges as 20% of 1990s hard disk drives are unreadable. HDDs, not meant for long-term storage, complicate remastering efforts, highlighting the need for continuous data backup.
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The music industry is facing significant archival challenges as many hard disk drives (HDDs) from the 1990s are becoming unreadable. According to Iron Mountain, a company specializing in media storage and destruction, approximately 20% of these older HDDs are entirely inaccessible. The shift from magnetic tape to hard drives was driven by the advantages of digital audio workstations and the drawbacks of tape, such as deterioration. However, HDDs are not designed for long-term storage, and their failure can be catastrophic since the magnetic disks cannot be easily separated from the reading hardware. Musicians and studios attempting to remaster tracks are discovering that even drives stored under optimal conditions have often failed. This situation highlights the broader issue of data storage reliability, as various media types, including optical and flash storage, also face degradation over time. Iron Mountain's warning serves as a reminder that no storage medium is infallible, and it is crucial to continuously back up important data across different formats to mitigate the risk of loss.
- Approximately 20% of 1990s HDDs in the music industry are unreadable.
- The transition from magnetic tape to HDDs has led to new archival challenges.
- HDDs are not designed for long-term storage, making them vulnerable to failure.
- Musicians are finding that drives stored properly still fail, complicating remastering efforts.
- Continuous data backup across various formats is essential to prevent data loss.
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6 commentsLots more discussion on the source, as referenced in the article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41504331
Do they just store it and forget it till I try to access, or copy it to new media every month/year to make sure it’s still accessible?
Same question for Backblaze B2 and such.
Does anyone know?
You're prohibited from duplicating physical media well past the point where it is likely to have degraded.
Thus effectively for much data the copyright balance no longer exists. Much work that should enter the public domain is instead merely wasted. Promotion of the arts and sciences is no longer served.
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