In the last installment of Soul Circuitry, we discussed the transience of digital media libraries. Losing a song or TV show to the digital ether is, at worst, an inconvenience, but the stakes are higher once we look beyond our own media collections—and beyond our own lifetimes.
Since you’re reading this blog on an electronic device, you won’t find it surprising that humans constantly create a staggering amount of data. Between photos, videos, emails, text messages, and everything else we do with our devices, it’s estimated that humanity creates over 400 million terabytes of data every day.[1] Each of us is personally responsible for 102MB every minute.[2] Much of this data is noise that is not retained longer than it’s needed. We don’t archive birthday emails from dentists or restaurant menus.
But alongside temporary files, we also have priceless digital assets. Family photos, messages from loved ones, and journals sit on hard drives on our own devices or in the cloud. While cloud storage is generally considered a safe storage medium, it still depends on an active, often paid, account with the cloud provider. I pay Google a few dollars a month to host thousands of pictures for me. While much of my collection is screenshotted memes, some of my fondest memories also live on Google’s servers (Figure 1).
Figure 1: I have over 500 pictures of my cats and each is more important than the last. (Source: Author))
Will Google still offer cloud storage 30 years from now? We don’t know. Will I still want my photos 30 years from now? Absolutely.
Conventional storage wisdom recommends the 3-2-1 method for backing up important data: Retain three copies, use at least two different storage mediums, and keep one copy at an off-site location. While this is a great strategy for keeping important information safe, it requires some extra steps if you want to keep important information safe for a long time. All storage mediums have a life span, and your data isn’t safe just because it’s on a hard drive tucked in a closet.
Data center titans like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google replace their servers every five to six years to rotate aging hard disk drives (HDDs) out of service and take advantage of newer hardware with better efficiency and storage density.
Cloud storage company Backblaze analyzed its hard drive inventory and found that HDD survival rates began to dip sharply after five years, lining up with the typical data center server lifespan (Figure 2).[3] However, these hard drives are always on. A hard drive in a personal computer or external storage may last longer with intermittent use, but mechanical parts will eventually fail. Even an unpowered hard drive risks internal lubrication failing after years of inactivity, preventing the disks from spinning.
Figure 2: After five years, the failure rate of HDDs in constant use increases sharply. (Source: Backblaze, used by permission)
So why not just use solid-state drives (SSDs)? With no moving parts, SSDs do not have the mechanical weaknesses of HDDs. However, SSDs still have similar warranty timelines from manufacturers—around five years. While SSDs can and do last longer than five years, they still aren’t a robust long-term solution.
Regardless of how long your storage medium lasts, you still need hardware to read it. You might have an exclusive collection of studio demos on magnetic tape from your favorite band, but you can’t enjoy them without a rare (and expensive) reel-to-reel tape player. The same goes for LaserDiscs, 8-tracks, and platinum poker chips.
A wide variety of digitization products and services eliminate the need for specialized hardware by turning your MiniDV home videos, paper documents, and photo prints into neatly organized files on your computer. USB adapters for floppy disks and SATA drives give us access to files that our modern computers may otherwise not be compatible with.
However, digitization is only the first step. Remember, cloud storage vendors refresh their hardware every five years. While we don’t demand nearly as much from our hardware as they do, we must remember that digital storage wears out too. Properly stored film negatives will outlast the computer they’re scanned to, and even the photographer who shot them. Scanning your family photos to a hard drive and then tucking it away in a closet for a couple of decades sets you up for an awkward family reunion when the data is unreadable.
It’s easy to take for granted that something is around forever just because it’s been digitized. But like all machines, computers need maintenance too. Plan beyond the life of a single hard drive for the files that truly matter to you or that you want to pass on.
Sources
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/871513/worldwide-data-created/ [2] https://www.domo.com/learn/infographic/data-never-sleeps-11 [3] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-long-do-disk-drives-last/
Matt Campbell is a technical storyteller at Mouser Electronics. While earning his degree in electrical engineering, Matt realized he was better with words than with calculus, so he has spent his career exploring the stories behind cutting-edge technology. Outside the office he enjoys concerts, getting off the grid, collecting old things, and photographing sunsets.