Microsoft's new 10k-year data storage medium: glass(arstechnica.com)
27 pointsby vinhnx6 hours ago4 comments
  • tecoholic5 hours ago
    For a second, I thought it's the "5D crystal" from MI: Final Reckoning or something like that. But, this looks like drawing on slabs like the Egyptians. Lasers are still involved, but not going to have the cool glowing effect once data is in.

    Sorry for the low-denominator comment.

  • c0wb0yc0d3r5 hours ago
    Is blu-ray best for hobbyists?
    • rustyhancock5 hours ago
      M-discs either DVD or Blu-ray works well[0]. It uses a mineral layer rather than the typical dyes and pigments to be more robust.

      They are writable and readable by most modern standard drives.

      The claims I generally see is 100 years for standard storage, 1000 years for archival storage.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

    • tombert4 hours ago
      If you need tons of storage, I actually do think you should check out LTO. You can buy LTO-6 tapes for about $10 if you get a bunch at a time, and each is about a 2.5TB. On a good day you can find external SAS LTO-6 drives for about $200. LTO tapes are generally rated for decades of use so they’re pretty durable.

      Nowadays on Linux you can very easily mount LTO tapes like any other drive using LTFS, so you don’t have to become some hyper-expert with tar.

      • RupertSalt4 hours ago
        I was running Minix and OpenBSD at home, but in 1999 I began using Linux, and that was because it was mature, no longer only a toy for experimenting, but mostly that it was the only PC Unix OS that supported the "ftape" Floppy-Tape interface for a QIC backup drive.

        https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Ftape-HOWTO.html

      • mikelitoris4 hours ago
        I think you forgot to mention that the readers cost $5k+ new and $1k from ebay (does it work? who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
        • tombert2 hours ago
          I have two used external LTO-6 decks that I got used for $200 each on eBay. LTO-7 and later are absurdly expensive, but you can shop around and occasionally find LTO-6 ones for cheap. You have to be a bit vigilant on eBay and shop around for awhile but deals can be had.

          I had to “repair” the first one I bought, but that literally ended up being fixed by tightening a screw on the SAS connector. The second one I bought worked out of the box.

    • juggert25 hours ago
      [dead]
  • ChrisArchitect3 hours ago
    Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/project-silica... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47067211)
  • userbinator5 hours ago
    it’s possible to store up to 4.84TB in a single slab of glass

    At the rate things are going, that might just be enough to hold a Windows with Copilot installer. /s

    • adrian_ban hour ago
      The slab of glass has about the size of a CD case and despite having less capacity per slab, the storage volume for a given amount of data would be about half of what would be needed now with the biggest HDDs and similar to the volume required by tape cartridges.

      So the density is already good enough.

      The main problem is the cost of the lasers used for writing, which would have to be reduced for mass production. The second important problem is the writing speed, but there also the cost of the lasers is the main problem, as for a greater speed more lasers can be added.

      Despite the current writing speed being similar to downloading files from an Internet source that throttles you, I would be quite happy to have such a device, even with its current level of performance, to avoid worrying about having to pay periodically for new HDDs or tape drives, in order to migrate data from the old HDDs or tape formats.