How long to Archive?

[pcmodem]

We are very similar to Sev. We archive all digital files onto DVD and have them going back as far as 1994. There are 2 copies burned in case of media failure and off-site backup. Before DVD's we backed up to CD. Before CD we had Opticals which were burned to CD's long ago. We have over 6,000 CD's/DVD's with just 1 set. All of the disks get cataloged into a FileMaker database just showing the root folders on the disk, not the files and folders within the parent folder.

We don't charge our customers for this either. No liability on our part if we don't have it or can't retrieve it.

[Whitaker]

We archive all our work to DVD as well; 1 on site, 1 off site. I don't think we've ever had to use the 2nd copy, but it's still worth doing. We use DiskCatalogMaker for our database, it comes with Toast, and works well.

[JoeatData]

Length of time only really matters(mattered) when you were storing imposed film. Most of the previous company's I worked for during the film ERA would save them for 3-5 years.

With CD's, DVD's and LTO tapes you really don't have the need to purge anything. With the current company I am with we have boxes of CD's with files that go back 8-12 years.

This is alright if you have pdf's but the real problem with that is when you have a customer asking you for an archived file you find out it's Pagemaker.

[Greg_Firestone]

I back everything up to Iomega Zip Disks because they're extremely reliable. LOL (I couldn't resist)

I suppose backing up is the easy part. The hard part is trying to open the files you created 10 years ago with the software you have today . . .

Greg