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[Jabo]

I've got a question, or topic for discussion ... what is the life expectancy of the data stored on things like floppy disks, CDR's, Zip Disks, and Flash RAM drives... I looked on the web quick to see if i could find anything interesting without much luck, once you type that stuff in it's instantly "click here to buy..." crap, so if anyone finds some interesting URLs post em here

i'm mostly interested in knowing more about Flash RAM, I've read the data integrity is anywhere between 3-5 years depending on the device. which isn't bad i suppose, but i'd love to know more about why that is. I'm rather certain CDR's have a very long life expectancy, flash ram is something new I don't know much about

[Slougi]

Hmm. Well flash ram should last at least 5 years if it's kept in reasonably cool and dry places. As to CDR's, floppys etc it's mostly the quality of the medium that counts, but there is not really any hard data on this, especially CD's. Floppys are not very reliable though, neither are ZIP disks. The higher data density of ZIP disks makes them much more sensitive to dust etc. On the other hand ZIP disks are somewhat more sturdy.

But to get back to Flash RAM, they should be quite reliable. It's become the number one media for the motherboard bioses, and one of the criteria why it was chosen was surely reliability. Also as it does not need any electricity for the stored data to remain in memory there is no risk of data loss due to for example the batteries wearing out. Also the fact that there are no mechanical parts in flashram should increase reliability. All in all I think it's pretty safe. Of course cons are high price and low storage space.

[EdgeBlade]

A CD, if taken care of and store properly can eaisly outlive you. Check a cool site www.HowStuffWorks.com, look around a bit and I'm sure you'll find what you want to know

[EdgeBlade]

http://www.howstuffworks.com/flash-memory.htm

[Jabo]

Yah that site is actually what I was looking for, it is very descriptive and has a wealth of information, thanks for reminding me about that site, it's one of those often forgotten in the world of using search engines, I'll bookmark it this time.

[sytaylor]

yeah howstuffworks rocks, very useful for college projects ;)