Although I'm quoting good advice, I'm not immune. I waited too long to convert some old 8mm & 35mm film reels from the 1950's and 1960's. They had begun disintegrating; the nitrocellulose doesn't hold up well over time. A shop converted what could be salvaged but some family history was lost. Another time we had a water pipe leak in the wall behind a closet, and it damaged hundreds of photos and negatives, none of which had been converted to digital. Only after that did I get moving on converting other media to digital. We didn't have the patience to convert a large bunch of VHS tapes for my wife's mom so they went into a dumpster (in Chinese, no use to us). I have a bunch of 4-track and 8-track music tapes from the 1960's; alas, half have decayed. (Yes, I was playing 4-tracks in my '56 Chevy before the 8-track cartridges came out.)
I also have the bulk of my media stored in RAID arrays. Have had hard drive failures in the past and it's unpleasant having to recover from that. I'm now in the process of upgrading my 6TB RAID arrays with 8TB drives; as they get larger and cheaper that's what I do. Even then, I have backups in secondary locations in case the RAID arrays are damaged or stolen. Even with many precautions you can still lose it all. A close friend of mine lost everything in the San Bruno gas explosion a few years back. Hers was one of the first 3 homes destroyed by the blast. Even her safe with all her jewelry melted to ash, all her family memorabilia completely gone. Counts her blessings, as friends invited them out to dinner just minutes before the blast.
Formats constantly change. I have various forms of optical hard media (not CD or DVD), Iomega JAZ media, magnetic tapes (micro to 9-track), eprom chips, micro-drives, compact flash drives, etc. Not to mention different format floppies that held from 80K max up through 1.4MB. It's amazing to think what was used over only a few decades. For the most part they are obsolete. What will we be using ten years from now? Nano-organic crystals? I made that up, but if created I'll be using it if I'm still alive. I like the old stuff but the future marches on and gets better.
I actually had to search the Internet for a bulb for the movie projector. I found one!!!
It is a chore and a lot of pressure. I inherited the family pictures when my dad went into a nursing home. I bought plastic, sealed bins, in hopes of preventing the disaster that you mention. Scares me to death.
4 tracks? Wow. Lol. That was after two tracks. Lol. My parent had 8-tracks.
Backups in secondary locations — good man. Your children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren…. will thank you. :)
Wow. Jaz. I still have some too... and no player.
New future formats — lol. Reminds me of the Men in Black....