Background
The rating on the box assumes conditions you probably do not have.
Every archival lifespan figure is conditional. Change the temperature and humidity and the number changes with it — usually by a lot, and always silently.
Bring your retention schedule. We will tell you what it actually costs to meet it.
Three media, three failure modes
LTO tape
Rated for decades at 70°F and 50% RH. Heat and humidity degrade the binder and the substrate. It usually still mounts — it just cannot be read cleanly, and you find out during the restore.
Hard drives
Humidity, corrosion, and stiction after long periods unpowered. Mechanical parts do not enjoy sitting still in a hot, damp room for two years.
SSDs
Charge leaks from the cells when unpowered, and the rate rises steeply with temperature. An SSD is the worst of the three for long-term cold archive, which surprises people.
Local
The Florida problem specifically
A server room here is conditioned until it is not. A chiller failure over a long weekend, a power event, a building whose HVAC was never sized for a rack — each one is a period at temperature and humidity that no archival rating anticipated. Nothing alarms, nothing fails, and the damage is cumulative and invisible. Our media vault holds 70°F ±2° and 50% RH ±5% continuously, which is the entire reason the rating means anything.
Common questions
- Does tape really last decades?
- Under its rated conditions, yes. Outside them, the rating does not apply. Storage conditions are the variable, not the medium.
- Why do unpowered SSDs lose data?
- Charge leaks from the cells over time, and the rate rises sharply with temperature. Cold storage of an SSD is not a safe long-term archive plan.
- Should we migrate old media?
- Eventually, yes — usually because you can no longer read the format, not because the media failed. Plan migration on the drive lifecycle, not the tape one.
- What conditions do you hold?
- 70°F ±2° and 50% relative humidity ±5%, continuously.
Tell us what media you are holding.
We will tell you honestly what condition it is probably in and whether it is worth migrating.