HOW TO MAKE UR DATAS SAFE FOR 1000 YEARS?

The CDs and DVDs you record on your home computer have an average life span of just two to five years. After that short time, the data will start to deteriorate. You are going to want your business records, photographs and important documents to last longer that that.

Cranberry LLC, a new company in Ferndale, Washington, claims its new 4.7 gigabyte DiamondDisc will last a thousand years. Data is recorded on the DiamonDisc platter in much the same way as on a DVD disc, but the burner etches much deeper pits. A higher capacity Blu-ray version is under development.

The discs can be played in any standard DVD player. According to Cranberry, these synthetic stone discs contain no dyes or other chemicals that could be effected by heat, ultraviolet rays, humidity or other elements.

At the time of this writing, the recorders are still quite pricey at $4,995. That is certainly not out of reach for even a small company but a little high for home use.

If you want to take advantage of the technology but don’t want to buy a recorder, you can upload your photos, videos or other files directly to the Cranberry Web site or mail them to the company. They will write that data to a DiamonDisc and mail the disk to the customer. One DiamonDisc costs $34.95, two or more are $29.95, and a five-pack is $149.75. For added safety, Cranberry will create a duplicate Cranberry DiamonDisc when the original is created. The duplicate will be kept in secure storage vault and used to create replacement discs if they are ever needed.

Step 1
Size on discSelect the files you want preserved and copy them to a folder on your computer. Do any editing that might be needed. Check the folder size to determine how many discs it will take to backup the data. If you can, add or remove files to get full discs. Take advantage of all the space available.

Record your data to standard DVDs as a temporary backup and to make sure everything really does fit.

Step 2
How Cranberry worksCreate a user account on the Cranberry web site (link is in the Resources section below) and order the number of discs you will need. At that point you will be able to download the software to send your files to Cranberry.

Step 3
Transfer the your files electronically or by mail to Cranberry. In a short time you will receive your DiamondDiscs in the mail. These are your long term storage discs so store them in a safe place. When you need access to your archive data, copy it from your storage discs to regular DVDs and use those for your working copies. Return the DianondDiscs to your storage location.