WEBVTT

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you know I think we've all been a little spoiled by digital data storage if you

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put something on your hard drive SSD or a rable CD if that's still your thing

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for whatever reason you can expect to be able to pull it up again whenever you

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want with every bit exactly where it's supposed to be but despite the relative

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reliability of digital data storage compared to the days when we consumed

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everything on cassette tapes and VHS data stored on Modern media can still

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Decay degrade and disappear over time so

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alliteration aside how does this happen and what can you do to prevent it let's

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start by a look at mechanical hard drives which although more economical

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than solid state drives can fail due to the moving Parts on the inside wearing

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out or through damage to the platters if

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something like a head crash happens but suppose you've got a Dependable hard

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drive that you take good care of by not subjecting it to shock moisture or your

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pet fret how could data on the drive Decay without any kind of physical

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damage or mishap you see hard drives store data as clusters of magnetic bits

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that are pointed in a certain direction that have the potential to flip to the

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opposite direction Over time however since modern hard drives have built in

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features to periodically refresh those bits of data and they also have

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error-checking algorithms that can often detect and fix flipped bits this kind of

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data rot is mostly a problem for drives that have been sitting around unplugged

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for 5 or 10 years at a time so the

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average user probably won't have to worry about this all that much but it

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can matter if you're using hard drives for very long-term archival style

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storage ssds on the other hand can be quite a bit more fickle with retaining

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data for long periods of time although ssds are often regarded as more durable

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than hard drives due their lack of moving Parts they don't hold data as

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well because they rely on trapping an electrical charge inside of a small

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transistor these charges can weaken over time and while making transistors

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smaller and smaller have increased SSD

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capacities it has also decreased data

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longevity although you can fight this off by making sure to not leave your SSD

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unplugged for long periods of time and just powering it on regularly they do

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tend to not last as long as hard drives went unplugged if you live in a warmer

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climate your SSD might not even hold data for more than like a year if you

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aren't using it as heat can accelerate data decay in those transistors so make

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sure you're not doing stuff like leaving a laptop with an SSD in the back of a

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hot car for long periods of time like you go on a trip or something but Luke

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what if I just store all of my super important stuff on optical discs you

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don't exactly have to turn on a CD so

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isn't that a better idea well yes and no

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Optical discs unfortunately are also susceptible to degradation in a number

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of ways just different ways such as oxidization of the metallic layer that

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actually holds the data when air seeps in through imperfections in the outer

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plastic layer of the disc adhesives that hold the different layers of a disc

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together can break down over time as well even making it possible to

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physically pull apart the disc like some kind of weird sandwich however you can

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get archival quality discs engineered with more durable materials that can

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reliably store data for between 20 and

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100 years depending on how exactly they're manufactured and there's even a

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relatively new type of optical disc called the M dis that claims it can

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store data for a thousand years whoa but

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since no long-term storage solution is perfect the best way to make sure your

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important stuff lasts as long as you want it to is make sure that you have

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independent redundant backups whether that's your home or with a cloud-based

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archival service and remembering things like not to leave your dri sitting

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around or using them as paper weights if something's really that important I hear

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tequi and entering Techquickie in the how did you hear about a section if you

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like the video like it if you dislike the video bit rot that dis like button

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if you want to see more like back up the Subscribe button and make sure that it's

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pressed if you'd like to see things that aren't really nerdy terrible jokes about

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buttons go to Channel Super Fun because there will be other terrible jokes but

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probably not about buttons