Like I’d imagine there’s gonna be a lot of rain over time if I want this time capsule to last like idk 10 years? 30 years?

Is there like a box so tough its indestructible?

Can animals dig it up if I bury it?

How deep do it bury it?

Is the earth’s magnetism gonna affect the hard drive? (Or is there a better medium?)

Like I want this to be like very low budget, I don’t have millions to build an actual timecapsule like some organizations have done. Is there some cheap box that’s waterproof to protect a hard drive from damage for like 30 years buried in the ground?

  • traches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    252·
    3 days ago

    I’d go with optical media here. Probably multiple capsules.

    • M-Disk (DVD if it will fit, otherwise Blu-ray)
    • Make an encrypted archive of your data. Strong password - I suggest diceware with 8 or more words so you might remember it in 30 years
    • Use DVDisaster to add parity data. You sacrifice some space, but you get error tolerance in exchange
    • Wrap the disks up in good jewel cases, well sealed plastic, along with some good big silica gel desiccant packs.
    • Put all that in the smallest durable, airtight container you can
    • stash somewhere it probably won’t be disturbed for a few decades. Memorize.
    • destroy all evidence you did this.
    • ooterness@lemmy.worldEnglish
      101·
      2 days ago

      This is terrible advice. Most writable DVDs degrade quickly, even if they’re stored away from sunlight and heat. Every single one of my burned DVDs from more than a few years back is completely unreadable.

      Update: I missed the very important line about M-DISC. This is critical. I can’t vouch for M-DISC personally, but most other optical media is garbage for archival purposes.

      • traches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        Do you remember what kind they were? For awhile they made them with organic dyes and those died quickly. I believe they stopped producing those, and the inorganic ones are supposed to be much better.

        • ooterness@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          Yes, they were organic dyes. At the time, those were the only kind. Maybe it’s gotten better over the years.

    • grayautumnday@lemmy.4d2.org
      6·
      2 days ago

      What about tape drives? You can still get them, and I have come across articles a few times (which I can’t find on a quick search, but I only use DDG now) saying that tape drives written 30-45 years ago, carefully conserved, were still readable after all that time.

      • traches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        I looked into tape drives for my own backups and they don’t make sense unless you’re working with double digit terabytes. We’re talking used old enterprise gear with weird form factors and connectors, I never found something like an external USB tape drive for a reasonable price.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      134·
      2 days ago

      No way. Optical media suffer bitrot at a high rate compared to magnetic media. And the means to read it are quickly going obsolete.

          • FaceDeer@fedia.io
            16·
            2 days ago

            It’s specifically what they’re for. They’re designed for archival purposes.

            You can spiral off into techno-paranoia if you like, but that’s just going to lead you to the conclusion that there are no solutions and nothing can be done. OP’s looking for actual solutions so that’s not helpful here.

            • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
              3·
              2 days ago

              I’m sorry, did I not provide a workable solution using magnetic media and periodic writes of new data? There’s nothing paranoid about that. It’s smart archiving.

              You can spiral off into portraying my common-sense solution as hyperbolic bullshit, but that’s just going to lead me to the conclusion that you didn’t read or comprehend my recommendation. I provided an actual solution and what you said isn’t helpful.

            • JcbAzPx@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              2 days ago

              That’s true, but for obvious reasons that hasn’t been fully tested yet. Still, for just 10-30 years, it should probably work. Certainly better than a hard drive.

              • FaceDeer@fedia.io
                3·
                2 days ago

                There are ways to artificially “age” media by accelerating the sorts of degradation pathways they’d be experiencing naturally during storage in normal conditions.

          • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
            8·
            2 days ago

            M-Disks are rated for one thousand years. Unlike other writable optical meida it doesn’t use an organic substrate. It’s carbon glass, very stable.

            • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
              4·
              2 days ago

              What’s awesome is that no one alive today can disprove their marketing. I’ll stick with the tech that we’ve been using for decades. You know, the one about which we have lots of data how it performs and degrades. Because we’ve manufactured hundreds of millions, or perhaps billions, of them. How many people do you know using M-DISCs and how many of them have had them for decades? I can answer the second part: zero, as they came to market in 2009.

      • traches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        It’s pretty dependent on humidity and temperature, so a DVD buried in a well sealed plastic bag with a desiccant pack is actually in good conditions. No light, generally cool, and low humidity are perfect.

        A hard drive has a lot of moving parts that must work and are basically impossible to replace. With optical media you’re just storing the platters, and I’m sure you’ll still be able to track down a drive somewhere. You can still find VHS players and those have been obsolete for 25 years.