Magnetic tape and sticky-shed syndrome

Subject: RE: Magnetic tape and sticky-shed syndrome
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Oct 15 - 03:47 AM

CD/DVD writables - 5 years is all you can count on at best, after that you are on borrowed time.

External HDD about the same

Memory Sticks about the same.

moral - we have been chasing capacity and price for a long time, not durability.

With tape we did not think nor were aware of the lifetime limitations back then. I have seen CDRs at about the price of a coffee that are guaranteed for 100 years. But can you wait to prove it?
The music industry used VHS cassettes (digitally encoded) and are now paying the price. Decca developed their own system on reel to reel video tape and suffered less over time.

Subject: RE: Magnetic tape and sticky-shed syndrome
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 15 Oct 15 - 03:33 AM

The world experts at salvaging old tapes and recordings thereon can be contacted via the "Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List"

Its a mailing list worth subscribing to (free). Join and also search the archives for keywords at

http://www.arsc-audio.org/arsclist.html

Its funded by the LOC.

Subject: RE: Magnetic tape and sticky-shed syndrome
From: cnd
Date: 14 Oct 15 - 09:01 PM

Sony has recently made 185 Terabyte cassette tapes.

185 terabytes! That Watson super-computer was only 4!

Subject: RE: Magnetic tape and sticky-shed syndrome
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 14 Oct 15 - 07:47 PM

Additional material:

I've linked to this 2005 "Sound on Sound" article a few times over the years...

Tape Salvage & Transfer

Subject: Magnetic tape and sticky-shed syndrome
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Oct 15 - 07:23 PM

This told me a lot of things I didn't know before about the archival stability of magnetic tape:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151014142223.htm