Sorry about that, when I posted the link to the valve article I should have posted it in that thread (or not posted it at all maybe -___-) 

I just noticed quite a few of my old cd-rs (5+ years old) became unreadable/very hard to read.

What's the best solution, what do you guys use ? 

They are almost as cheap as DVDs really, and last longer, just keep them safe somewhere.

Paper is good too. =) 

for backup, since the data layer is not as susceptible to scratching as cds. 

I use numerically named gmail accounts tbh... 

GnuPG is nice for encrypting backups before storing online (which I do too).

DVDs have the same dataloss by "age" as CDs do. Best thing probably is using a HDD and change to a new one every couple of years. Or USB-Sticks. 

8GB stick = 29.99 GBP
250GB external HD = 39.99 GBP

Uses 2 USB ports - 5400RPM

Buy one ;p 

Thanks for the tips; a friend suggested today to buy an usb frame for hdd's and just regularly changing the hdd.

But I'm somewhat paranoid about hdd's as well, had a fatal crash a few months ago, it was a 3 months old Maxtor...and loss of a hdd is gonna be really hard, in the case of a dvd I'd lose only 4 gig.

This really sux as there were many rare maps/mods/mp3s on those cd's, which were always kept in their cases. Some of them I've used only 3-4 times, no scratches at all. 

It's not cheap, but I just bought a Drobo unit (http://www.drobo.com/). I filled it up with drives and now have 2TB of redundant storage. If a drive fails, no big deal, just hot swap it out and it won't even hiccup. 

is next to impossible. It's horrible in this day and age. 

As I said, I use a Drobo unit in conjunction with Time Machine. I can restore my Mac to any date since I started running Time Machine. It's about as easy as backing up is going to get. 

http://www.getdropbox.com/
http://www.jungledisk.com/
http://www.allmydata.com/

Don't know if I'd trust this sort of thing over time more or less than a DVD or USB stick though. There are arguments both ways.

I've been thinking about this recently. As I'm probably going to buy a home server rig soon anyway, I'm thinking of just buying a case with lots of room, several large disks and doing software RAID 1. And hope my house doesn't burn down :) (Bandwidth is too expensive down here on the bottom of the world to use an online solution for bulk stuff like photos or music). 

Just encrypt your backup yourself, then you can use any online storage/upload service for it. There are some sites that can mirror the file to multiple hosters for you. Then just keep an eye on those and reupload if necessary. Never trust any service where you upload it unencrypted.

Well, that's an idea if you are too cheap to even get a small webspace or vserver for it.

If you consider all your "media" (music, games, movies etc) backup worthy, well then you might be screwed... For me the important files are about 500MB. If you'd backup that once a month it would be manageble even with ISDN-speeds. Maybe do smaller backups of just the changes weekly.

Did I mention that Linux rocks for stuff like this? :) 

Yeah it's probably a good solution when looking at the spectrum of what is available.
But I mean the problem more generally. What about in twenty years? There aren't that many interfaces to read hardware from 1988 now, or odds of said hardware working well now. If you put your hard Drongo disks in a box and open it up in 2028 is it just plug and read? Or in 2048 when you want to show your grandkids something you mapped way back?
I think the most reliable way to document would be good prints and/or photos (with paper and ink designed to last).
A book like Pope's Brushwork project. If it was made on such paper with such a technique that it could last.
You still couldn't play it, but at least you had *something*.

Actually the odds of a quake engine being available on new hardware and operating systems is better, it seems to usually be the first thing that is ported thanks to John Carmack's far sighted idea of making it open source back in the day. Quake and SDL exist even on new from scratch OSes like SkyOS. 

bambuz

I think it would require diligence on the part of the keeper of the data. Meaning that you would need to carry over anything you wanted to keep every time you changed your back up medium. Like, if I move to some sort of solid state device, I would need to be careful to copy everything from my Drobo. And then if I move to some sort of device that stores data in space using worm holes, I'd need to copy it from my solid state device. And so on.

I agree it's a problem but I think anything that you want to write to and store in a closet for 20 years is going to have to be incredibly low level and generic - like you said, maybe paper. But even paper needs to be protected from moisture, sunlight, etc. Nothing is really permanent in that sense. 

that drobo thingy looks cool. I am pretty much a sucker for anything with blue LEDs on it. 

My CRT is showing purple shadows on things like black text on white background. Slightly offset to the right.
I think this is a shadow mask tube...
Is it unfixable? 

It was a cable issue, fixed it... 

it's so hard to find good CRTs these days. when mine breaks, i doubt if i'll be able to get another one. :( 

there are people selling them on messageboards quite cheaply... if you have some space to store a few good CRT:s. (not too moist or temperature swinging) 

I'd love to get rid of my 21", 50Kg, 80W monitor and get a TFT. Wanna swap? 

Is that an IBM? Oh well they haven't done displays for ages. 

I just checked, the memory from the lasting moving it was a bit blurred, it's "just" 30Kg. But 120W typical usage. 

Whats the top resolution? 

Just get an LCD panel that can do 75hz, then you can get max fps in Quake with vsync on and you're all good. :D

No, it's still probably not enough for the die hard CRT fans, but it makes it a bit more tolerable. I do actually understand why you'd still want a CRT, I just feel that as long as the response time on the LCD panel is low enough, the benefits outweigh the downsides.