formats and archiving

[Margaret Fleck]

> I'd certainly also advocate archiving valuable material in 2 different
> formats, stored in 2 different places. Our 'standard' system for video
> is to keep original material on DVC tape, with a copy in AVI format on a
> USB hard drive. Yes AVI files are huge, but they're easy to make and
> edit, and are guaranteed to replay on virtually any computer. Their size
> isn't really a problem these days - 250GB USB drives are getting common.

... and the two different places should be geographically separated.

Off-hand, I can think of recent examples where universities sustained major damage
(ranging from a whole building to multiple buildings) from fire, hurricane, flood,
and PETA sabotage.   I also know of an example where undergraduate research
projects were sabotaged.   That was especially hard to recover from, because the
backup tapes were stored in the same room and were removed at the same time as
the disks.

I also know that even reputable academic departments and companies often
keep backup tapes in the same or a nearby building, which is ok for minor
machine meltdowns but not for disaster recovery.

Send a second copy of your data to a colleague or relative far, far away.


Margaret