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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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that stone tablets might be making a comeback freshbooks is on a mission to
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for crafting and sending professional invoices in seconds freshbooks allows
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rest of it anyways getting started on freshbooks is extremely simple even if
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you're not a numbers person and freshbook says especially if you're not a numberous person you can try
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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