One of the most hotly debated aspects of film preservation is the storage of digital data. Standards are currently in flux and under consideration. And the reason there are several camps with differing points of view is that there is no one proven method. There are however solid indicators of directions to take.

The first rule of thumb is to create 2, or preferably 3, complete copies of your data and store them separately from one another. The second rule is to consider the known shelf life of the media you use to store the data. Spinning discs (hard drives) last up to three years. Data tapes, like the LTO format, can last up to 30 years. Currently on offer from some companies is storage in “the cloud”. This means storage on hard drive servers, usually managed by a large company like Google or Amazon. This service usually requires a rental fee for the storage. But, when this type of service is managed by reputable companies, the data is protected by various redundancy schemes and it can be easily accessible by you.

In addition to working with large companies, Watch Works can work with you to set up your own similar system. Our partners can provide you with the hardware and software to establish an in-house “cloud” that you can manage easily. This is an option that might be very appealing for small collections, or even families with lots of home movies and relatives scattered all over the country or the world who want to see them.

LTO tapes offer you the option to use less expensive media and to store those tapes more cheaply. The data on the tapes can be retrieved much in the same way you would copy files from one hard drive to another. For large collections we can recommend a hardware and software strategy for creating proxies to be kept live or on-line and accessing your library of tapes.

Storage of any media should be done professionally. The tapes can be stored with a storage company like Bonded Services, or we can advise you about the care and storage if you are choosing to do it on your own. And you might choose to create your three copies on LTO and active files on-line. You would store one set of the tapes with a storage company, another on-site with you and the third posted to a cloud service company or on your own servers.

Data preservation, like film preservation, is a process with a lot of good science behind it. We have no choice now but to preserve our films as best we can, create digital copies at the earliest possible moment and actively participate if the storage of both the data created and the films we cherish. That commitment and hands-on approach will be the only way we can save all films.