I'm proud to have raw images backed up from as far back as my graduate days. Unfortunately I don't have the tape drives to read any of them. It's not only backing up the data but also backing up the backup capability and being able to read the data. I remember a wonderful discussion on this many years ago and if my memory serves me correctly James Holton (sorry if I got that wrong James). did an analysis of backup media and came to the conclusion that we should be using stone tablets for longevity and readability.
Somewhat tongue in cheek but maybe we should be putting our biological skills to storing the data on DNA although writing time and readout may be an issue. As an aside our crystallization center (http://getacrystal.org) has almost two decades of images stored and accessible - over 170 million images. Only now are we starting to make good use of this. I fully subscribe to the concept of storing raw images but there are very real practical and financial problems :( Cheers, Eddie Edward Snell Ph.D. Biological Small Angle Scattering Theory and Practice, Eaton E. Lattman, Thomas D. Grant, and Edward H. Snell. Available through all good bookshops, or direct from Oxford University Press Director of the NSF BioXFEL Science and Technology Center President and CEO Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute BioInnovations Chaired Professorship, University at Buffalo, SUNY 700 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, NY 14203-1102 hwi.buffalo.edu Phone: (716) 898 8631 Fax: (716) 898 8660 Skype: eddie.snell Email: esn...@hwi.buffalo.edu Webpage: https://hwi.buffalo.edu/scientist-directory/snell/ Heisenberg was probably here! -----Original Message----- From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of graeme.win...@diamond.ac.uk Sent: Friday, July 13, 2018 10:53 AM To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Should we still keep copies of all raw data? Sergei, all, I for one would always recommend saving data - not least as this is the basis for your science and you may need to revisit it later, perhaps before or after publication. Re: (a) I know we’re all working on improving the methods but they are still have scope for improvement (b) obviously depends on the local policies, and may not be guaranteed… I know the software we have in DIALS is better than 2 years ago… sure XDS etc the same so you could well get better results revisiting old data, for marginal cases. Best wishes Graeme On 13 Jul 2018, at 10:30, Sergei Strelkov <sergei.strel...@kuleuven.be<mailto:sergei.strel...@kuleuven.be>> wrote: Dear All, I believe this question may be of some interest. In the past, we always stored all raw data ever collected by the lab. With the recent advances, such as (a) automated/on-the-fly processing offered by some (European) synchrotrons, and (b) an ongoing discussion on centralized raw data archiving, I wonder if it is time to revise the strict policy of keeping all data (before we invest in a new NAS system... ) Best wishes, Sergei Prof. Sergei V. Strelkov Laboratory for Biocrystallography Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, KU Leuven <http://pharm.kuleuven.be/anafar> ________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 -- This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential, copyright and or privileged material, and are for the use of the intended addressee only. If you are not the intended addressee or an authorised recipient of the addressee please notify us of receipt by returning the e-mail and do not use, copy, retain, distribute or disclose the information in or attached to the e-mail. Any opinions expressed within this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily of Diamond Light Source Ltd. Diamond Light Source Ltd. cannot guarantee that this e-mail or any attachments are free from viruses and we cannot accept liability for any damage which you may sustain as a result of software viruses which may be transmitted in or with the message. Diamond Light Source Limited (company no. 4375679). Registered in England and Wales with its registered office at Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1
