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Non-Tech : Any info about Iomega (IOM)? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cheeky Kid who wrote (52280)	4/13/1998 11:27:00 AM
From: Gmoney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 58324

Interesting article in the current BusinessWeek about storage and lost of data. Seems that the claims of the people about CD-ROM storage lasting 100 years,etc. etc. are false. In fact all forms of storage (magnetic, optical, etc.) do not last anywhere near the claims their backers make. Interesting one of the claims made by people favoring CD-R, CD-RW was the length of time that the CD-ROM would last in relation to magnetic media and in specific zip disks. 04/20/98 DATA STORAGE: FROM DIGITS TO DUST excerpt: >>>>> Forget forever. Under less-than-optimal storage conditions, digital tapes and disks, including CD-ROMs and optical drives, might deteriorate about as fast as newsprint--in 5 to 10 years. Tests by the National Media Lab, a St. Paul (Minn.)-based government and industry consortium, show that tapes might preserve data for a decade, depending on storage conditions (chart). Disks--whether CD-ROMs used for games or the type used by some companies to store pension plans--may become unreadable in five years. For consumers, the biggest worry is CD-ROMs. Unlike paper records, CD-ROMs often don't show decay until it's too late. Experts are just beginning to realize that stray magnetic fields, oxidation, humidity, and material decay can quickly erase the information stored on them (table). Says Robert Stein, founder of New York-based Voyager Co., which makes commercial CD-ROM books and games: ''CDs have a tendency to degrade much faster than anybody, at least in the companies that make them, is willing to predict.'' Stein doesn't expect the CD-ROMs Voyager sells to last more than 5 or 10 years, and neither, he says, should customers. <<<<< GARY