Data Hoarder

0 readers

3 users here now

We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Do disc drives break in storage? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Looking to buy some original XBOX consoles as backups, mainly to swap out their disc drives when my main one dies. Just wondering if the laser in the drives will go bad during storage? Or whether the lasers will only degrade while being used.

Additionally, I was thinking about ripping all of my XBOX games while I still have a working laser, and I was wondering what would be the best 'set it and forget it' medium to store them on. I was thinking possibly blu-ray discs.

Thanks!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, optical drives can just "go bad" while sitting. Even if not the laser, many of the mechanical parts can age and fail.

There is no "set it and forget it" medium in existence. Multiple copies, in multiple locations and if possible on different media types.