The average interval between the introduction of new floppy disk size standards was:
- 5 years
- 10 years
- 15 years
The 8" floppy was introduced in 1971, followed by the 5 1/4" in 1976 and the 3 1/2" in 1981.
The best way to avoid catastrophic loss of digital storage media is:
- Print out all documents and store in fireproof cabinets
- Avoid touching media surfaces with bare hands
- Store a set of copies in a different location
- Maintain moderate temperature and humidity
If at all possible, off-site storage and data management should be arranged. The ideal off-site location is close enough to keep the cost of moving media back and forth from becoming prohibitive, while far enough away to minimize the likelihood that the main facility and off-site facility will succumb to the same disaster.
The following all represent a threat to data on optical media except:
- Excessive flexing
- Labeling the wrong side
- Stray magnetic fields
- High heat and humidity
True optical media (such as CDs and DVDs) do not use magnetism to store data and are thus unaffected by magnetic fields. Magneto-optical disks do store data magnetically, but the magnetic dipoles can only be altered at high temperatures (generated by a laser in a magneto-optical drive) and are not affected by stray magnetic fields at room temperature.
Obsolescence threatens (check all that apply):
- Computer operating systems
- Digital storage media
- Basic encoding schemes for digital data
- Hardware for reading digital storage media
- File formats
- Applications software
- Computing hardware
All technologies are subject to obsolescence.
The following are all trends in digital storage media except
- Greater storage capacity
- Higher density
- Larger size
- Lower cost per unit of storage
All major categories of storage media (magnetic disk, optical disk and tape cassettes/cartridges) have tended toward smaller size even while increasing total storage capacity, as a result of rapidly rising storage density.
What was the first medium for storing digital content?
- Paper
- Magnetic tape
- Floppy disks
- Hard drives
Punch tape was an early dead end in computer data storage. Punch Cards became obsolete as the cost of disk and tape storage dropped, and as users gained the ability to edit their work directly due to the development of interactive terminals. These early digital media were both machine-readable and eye-readable, thus forming a bridge between the analog and digital worlds. Subsequent digital media has been machine-readable only, allowing huge gains in processing speed, and space savings, but at the cost of total dependence on technology to interpret the contents.