Hitachi Claims Glass Data Storage Will Last Millions of Years

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
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Hitachi is displaying a new form of data storage consisting of laser etched quartz glass in binary format which is impervious to just about all forms of destruction and touted to last hundreds of millions of years. That’s great and all, but can it store Crysis? :D
 
That's nice. Are they going to sell that division to Western Digital too?
 
What about shock tests? How far can a decent sized piece of that glass fall before it cracks?
 
This makes me think of a few months ago when I was sorting through a bunch of my parents old pictures, the oldest of which had my great grandfather in his uniform during World War 1, although most were from the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's.. It got me thinking about this very issue. I mean we've reached a time where it's so much easier to take pictures then it used to be, but how many of the pictures taken today, the vast majority of which are digital, will be around,and viewable in 10 years, not to mention 50-100 years from now?
 
maybe now tommy lee jones won't have to buy the white album...again.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
This makes me think of a few months ago when I was sorting through a bunch of my parents old pictures, the oldest of which had my great grandfather in his uniform during World War 1, although most were from the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's.. It got me thinking about this very issue. I mean we've reached a time where it's so much easier to take pictures then it used to be, but how many of the pictures taken today, the vast majority of which are digital, will be around,and viewable in 10 years, not to mention 50-100 years from now?
Click to expand...

It'll be no more difficult as transferring from floppy to hard disk drive. What matters more I think is format. At least for now.

In a century or two's time, the problem we'll face would probably be interfacing with old hardware, but if it's anything like today, we'll always be moving things to newer hardware before the old become obsolete - not because they become obsolete, but because hardware break or die and it makes sense to move them to newer hardware before they do (or while they're broken).
 
Doesn't sound like it's R/W, but instead is RO. Fine for archival, as long as it doesn't break. I'd imagine even scratches could be buffed out without harming the integrity.

Nice shot at the human race with global cooling/warming/climate change at the end of the article... I loves me some bias, yessir...
 
c4v3man said:
Doesn't sound like it's R/W, but instead is RO. Fine for archival, as long as it doesn't break. I'd imagine even scratches could be buffed out without harming the integrity.

Nice shot at the human race with global cooling/warming/climate change at the end of the article... I loves me some bias, yessir...
Click to expand...
I support it's WORM media, not RO. Sorry...
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
I mean we've reached a time where it's so much easier to take pictures then it used to be, but how many of the pictures taken today, the vast majority of which are digital, will be around,and viewable in 10 years, not to mention 50-100 years from now?
Click to expand...

Probably not all of them. Photography is a throwaway medium now more than ever. Who's going to keep photos of themselves for long periods? Why is a set of 120 photos from last week more significant than this week when you didn't look your best? You can click a few times and get rid of it forever, so people self censor.
 
This is awesome news! When I'm 1,000,000 years old, I'll still have all my old data! Oh, wait..
 
it's about time. it's almost like they invented the computer today. now you can really store massive amounts of data and not worry about if it is going to last 10-20-100 years, because it will. computers now have really became dependent, reliable.
 
AndreRio said:
it's about time. it's almost like they invented the computer today. now you can really store massive amounts of data and not worry about if it is going to last 10-20-100 years, because it will. computers now have really became dependent, reliable.
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Probably going to be about ten years until this hits the consumer market.. ;)
 
Watch a computer virus be inadvertently stored in the media, to which future robots will not be immune to. It naturally causes hyperrage, and they wipe out what remains of the human race.
 
c4v3man said:
I support it's WORM media, not RO. Sorry...
Click to expand...

Ew, worms!

Ducman69 said:
Watch a computer virus be inadvertently stored in the media, to which future robots will not be immune to. It naturally causes hyperrage, and they wipe out what remains of the human race.
Click to expand...

Luckily, no one alive who isn't human will care since cats will rule the Universe and will have replaced humans with food vending machines. They, of course, won't be bothered by enraged robots since they could just do the cute kitten look and melt angry robot brains into puddles of happiness.

147-cute-kitten-walking-in-the-grass.jpg
 
SkribbelKat said:
Ew, worms!



Luckily, no one alive who isn't human will care since cats will rule the Universe and will have replaced humans with food vending machines. They, of course, won't be bothered by enraged robots since they could just do the cute kitten look and melt angry robot brains into puddles of happiness.

147-cute-kitten-walking-in-the-grass.jpg
Click to expand...

I for one will welcome our Kitty Overlords... ALL HAIL KITTY!!!
 
Human life span... safe to say no more than 100 years.
Human civilization....safe to say no older than 20k years(don't sue me if I'm wrong, might be older).
Future human civilization....IMO, doubtful we'll reach another 5k.
Chances of future ET life....slim.
Chances of future ET life finding us.....doubtful.

All hail the plastic people!
 
ninjaturtle said:
Human life span... safe to say no more than 100 years.
Human civilization....safe to say no older than 20k years(don't sue me if I'm wrong, might be older).
Future human civilization....IMO, doubtful we'll reach another 5k.
Chances of future ET life....slim.
Chances of future ET life finding us.....doubtful.

All hail the plastic people!
Click to expand...

Theres a Major issue with what you're suggesting...:D
 
if it proves reliable with having better shock resistance, it'll be great, however i wonder if it is going to be HDD or another form of permanent media storage.
 
You know what, my 1982 Floppy disks from my Atari 400 computer, still work. No crc errors, nothing.

So that is 30 years and still going!

Go figure?:cool:
 
Oh, 100 million years till someone's kid drops it on the tile floor! Glass, if I remember from and earlier incident today, breaks quite easy are hard surfaces. LOL
 
Azhar said:
It'll be no more difficult as transferring from floppy to hard disk drive. What matters more I think is format. At least for now.

In a century or two's time, the problem we'll face would probably be interfacing with old hardware, but if it's anything like today, we'll always be moving things to newer hardware before the old become obsolete - not because they become obsolete, but because hardware break or die and it makes sense to move them to newer hardware before they do (or while they're broken).
Click to expand...

Well that is sort of my point, how many people actually move them to new hardware before the old one dies?

I know of very few people who actually back up their digital photos in any way, shape or form and must just dump them onto their hard drive and leave it at that.

Old photos faded but in general as long as they were stored halfway decently they are still viewable 50-100 years later without any intervention on anyone's part, but a photo on a hard drive, even if the drive still works, will be virtually impossible for your average person to view.


DeathPrincess said:
Probably not all of them. Photography is a throwaway medium now more than ever. Who's going to keep photos of themselves for long periods? Why is a set of 120 photos from last week more significant than this week when you didn't look your best? You can click a few times and get rid of it forever, so people self censor.
Click to expand...

True, I'm not saying that most pictures are, or aren't, worth keeping. Instead I'm simply pointing out that even though we take many more photos now, then they did 50-100 years ago far fewer of those taken today will survivde to be seen 50-100 years from now.
 
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