I don't think memory sticks have any internal electrolytics or power supplies. Both USB and FAT32 are widely documented standards in this era, so while they might no longer be supported (FAT32 is already very old), information on how to communicate and decode data will still likely be available. RS232, for example, is now 50 years old and one can still find adapters and software.
Richard On Dec 12, 2012, at 4:45 PM, Roger Rowlett wrote: Maybe the memory chips will retain their bits for 100 years, but what about the driver hardware or internal power supply? Anyone had an electrolytic capacitor last for 100 years? Just sayin... I like the image of the USB sticks in the -80 freezer, though. :) _______________________________________ Roger S. Rowlett Gordon & Dorothy Kline Professor Department of Chemistry Colgate University 13 Oak Drive Hamilton, NY 13346 tel: (315)-228-7245 ofc: (315)-228-7395 fax: (315)-228-7935 email: rrowl...@colgate.edu<mailto:rrowl...@colgate.edu> On 12/12/2012 4:38 PM, Artem Evdokimov wrote: Or... (gasp) store a regular USB drive in a freezer, yes? If the relationship between data decay rate and temperature indeed follows the same good old Arrhenius formula then any old USB drive is virtually endless at -80C and safe for human life span at -20 (i.e. kitchen freezer, sans defrost cycles (so pack your USB in some ice packs so defrost doesn't kill it). If this works, feel free to send me money, SanDisk... Artem On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Richard Gillilan <r...@cornell.edu<mailto:r...@cornell.edu>> wrote: SanDisk advertises a "Memory Vault" disk for archival storage of photos that they claim will last 100 years. (note: they do have a scheme for estimating lifetime of the memory, Arrhenius Equation ... interesting. Check it out: www.sandisk.com/products/usb/memory-vault/<http://www.sandisk.com/products/usb/memory-vault/> and click the Chronolock tab.). Has anyone here looked into this or seen similar products? Richard Gillilan MacCHESS
