[GingisK]

The question would then be, "Will the obsolete the I/O device for it after you accumulate a lifetime of data?".

There is a long list of media that still contains useful information that is lost forever for want of a device to read it. I know this first hand.

[Wuli]

I went through two periods as a company’s IT director where we transferred important data from older media to what would be our newest media, to be sure, in spite of time, we could still get to it if needed.

I did it at home, a number of times, with my PCs, as older data storage media was becaming obsolete.

Just for show, I still have a few 5 1/2 inch floppy disks on an office bookshelf.

[larrytown]

Yep - it’s a multifactor issue. Media is worthless without the hardware and software to get it out and organized.

Just think of all the wire recordings that were the rage...and that’s a simple one.