[DirtyWorks]

What do you store on your comp or Iphone etc that you would consider essential? Old army Field Manuals, survival guides, important family records and documents,medical records, text books, history books to pass on to future generations, cook books? I hope you get the idea where I am going with this. In a lot of SHTF situations of the past ( Katrina all the way back to the Garden of Eden and the Big Flood) documentation and recording of the facts have been important to mankind. With today's technology, we can carry so much info in the palm of our hand. What would be the most useful? What do yall think? Crazy question/thread idea?

 

[JMS39339]

Not crazy at all... I consider my family photos and some documents and books that I have on my computer to be very important. Some time back, I undertook a project to scan in all my family pictures that were pre-digital. I keep them offloaded onto several USB keys that I always keep in my gun safe. If I were to have to bail out, I'd be sure to grab them. That way, provided that there was power and computers were still functional, I'd be able to have those things back at some point. Since there are some scenarios where electronic items might not work so well, there are a few really cherished things that I have several hard copies of and I'd definitely squeeze a few of those in my pack some where. It may not be the most useful information to carry but under that circumstance, I'd consider it to be the most valuable.

 

[Methos]

how to e-books; science e-books; educational stuff.

I store them on DVD. DVD life conservatively is at least 15 years minimum. Mechanical magnetic computer drives, while fast, are unreliable beyond a few years. You never know when it will turn into a brick and all your stored data becomes a paperweight. If you backup on another drive, it can suffer the same fate at any moment.

They say solid state media like SD type cards can keep for well over 20 years, but the technology isn't even twenty years old yet. From what I've read, the most consensus seems to lie on this type of media as being the most reliable for long term data storage. Problem is that they aren't big enough these days for lots of video storage. But with ebooks and texts, you can store copious amounts.

 

[pinetor]

Another question that many seem to overlook is not just the storage of the data.. but the retrieval of it. For instance.. all those school papers you wrote in Wordstar might be a bit tough to get unless you also stored a copy of WordStar. As for the DVD versus some chip.. if may be that the chip wins not because it stores better, but because it does not require a special drive to retrieve it. By the way Sony.. the inventor of the 3.5" Floppy stopped production of media this year. (which means that copy of Wordperfect on 20 floppies will be useless if you cant find a drive!!!!

Stanford has given this a lot of thought as it applies to libraries. They created a (rather free) product/service for public libraries that uses servers located at each library to then back up online data of the other libraries along with a system cor constantly correcting and replacing lost or corrupted data. The system is called LOCKSS. http://lockss.stanford.edu/lockss/Home

But I digress. The point is, if you are serious about long term storage and retrieval of your data.. theres lots to think about. I rather good bet is Adobe Acrobat and thier PDF technology. It has gotten pretty bloated lately, but its proven to be a good long term method for storing and retrieving images and text.

 

[sidroski]

I have seen so many media fail, I think a hard copy is the only way to go. I know those Pelican case are high as H***. I saw a rubbermaid one for around 30 bucks. Looked to be about 20-25 cubic feet. Wrap it up in celefane and put it down in there, you can always have the remote drives and DVD's for fast access.

 

[1985 4runner]

I print useful info on the economy setting on my printer. Use a three hole punch & put the pages in a binder. Not very space effective, but I'm very selective in the info. I've indexed it as well.

I have amassed a nice small three volume collection over the years. All stored in my safe along with all of my old Marine Corps manuals & other important paperwork & pictures.

 

[CAJNFRND]

I just bought a portable external hard drive and a fire resistant media safe. The harddrive fits in the media safe, and the media safe fits in my gun safe. Once a month I take the drive out and update my files from my pc. Keeps my harddrive safe and up to date. Hadn't thought about sd cards, but I've got alot of pictures that would take a few dozen sd cards! Media safe was around $35. Harddrive will run $55 to $200 depending on size, but the price drops every other month.