Long-Term Data Storage

I suppose you could always laser etch your bits on gold film and store it in a secure container. There are some products out there like the M disk that claim to last up to 1,000 years, but typical consumer storage media are only expected to last a few decades under optimal conditions.https://www.mdisc.com/

Other than continuously copying files to new media every so often, are there reliable digital mechanisms for long-term storage (say, 50 years)?

It depends what's long term for you. If long term is 10-20 years then cold disk storage is probably acceptable provided you have some redundancy. However if for whatever reason you are aiming at 50, 100, or 100+ year storage, this is probably the safer approach (however like another comment mentioned, a decoding algorithm should probably be provided with the documents).

I’m sorry to say that this is a rather naïve approach to long term preservation of data. There are surprisingly few solutions to preserve consumer data for more than a decade or so. If you really want to preserve your data for, say, decades, much less hundreds of years, then you need to think beyond the storage media you’re currently using. Even CDs fade after merely a few years of safe storage, leading to errors and data loss in the long run. Thus there are a multitude of factors you need to ta

Most SSDs only guarantee your data for 90 days when off. Even high grade, SLC, professional SSDs. Hard drives fare better, but your best bet for decade-long conservation remains tape.

I'm in love with this concept! I'm wondering about the longevity of storage devices.> SD Cards won’t last 100 years but the code to talk to one will.It seems like the article implies that family that owns an heirloom computer would have to backup their data every decade or so, assuming the storage medium lasts that long.Are there any data storage options that can go decades without being used? From my admittedly cursory research, it seems like M-Disc or solid state storage

The film survived 60 years. Wonder if modern storage media (SSD, NVME) would survive that long?

Flash memory relies on cells keeping charged, but the electrons can slowly leak and discharge the cells over time. It looks like the commonly claimed number is 10 years, but there's no clear answer. Hard drives also aren't great as a "set and forget" method. In either case you should refresh the data regularly (~yearly). Optical media is a great option for digital long-term storage, but paper is a very tried-and-true method, if stored in the right conditions.

You can try M-DISC that's supposed to store data a thousand years. No idea if it keeps its promises, though.https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

there is more chance your cassette is readable 20years from now (mine are) than data in a single solid state memory device so there is that.