A discussion with the [PIC] tag spawned an interesting
discussion about backing up data for long term storage. One
thing that was not mentioned was M-Disc.

=20

I have an M-Disc drive and am considering using it for long
term backup. M-Disc does not rely on dyes but actually burns
the disc so it does not have the longevity issues that -R
and +R discs have. However, I have some concerns. First, the
discs are much more expensive but not prohibitively so.
Currently about $4.50US for a 25GB Blu-Ray version on
Amazon. Second, Optical discs seem to be going away. I don't
want a pile of discs that can't be read. M-Discs can be read
on any standard DVD or Blu-Ray player but will there be any
such players in 10 or 20 years. If I archive a good drive,
will it be able to attach to a machine in 10 or 20 years, if
so, will there be any drivers to make it work?

=20

I currently have some floppy drives (even some magnetic core
memory) but no machine with the correct connector to attach
one. It looks to me that this may be the way optical drives
are heading. What do you think?

=20

I am an amateur photographer and currently I have hundreds
of gigabytes of images. I keep them on at least three
different hard drives, on two different machines, and one
set of drives in a fire safe. I also have a fourth offsite
set which are only updated every few months.

=20

Allen

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