Storing hard drives

[ksmith]

So last night I pulled some hard drives out of some old PCs--what's the best way to store them?

I didn't try to power up the PCs, and I have no idea how viable the drives are. I am not going to try to power up the PCs, which are now boxed up in the bed of my truck.

One of the drives is dusty--should I use canned air to clean it?

Comments

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Must be in the air, I did the same thing last night. I have mine stored in cloth bags, smooth cotton that won't pill or shed on the drives. Paper would do as well, but you want to avoid plastics.

Not sure about cleaning the dust. Air, I should think, and maybe a soft, clean paint brush.

[berry-k.livejournal.com]

Actually I disagree. Asumming that Kris WANTS to preserve the drives for future data extraction I'd recommend putting them into a plastic anti-static bag, wrapping in a layer of bubble wrap and storing in a cool dry place.

Compressed air in a can should be pretty safe.

I'd also recommend pulling the data off sooner rather than later; I have some old drives in my garage I can no longer buy controllers for, so they're useless unless I get lucky on ebay.

[windrose.livejournal.com]

I meant regular plastic bags, like most folks have in the kitchen. I didn't have any anti-static bags handy, so I used the aforementioned cloth bags. They're not intended for long-term storage, just as a place to keep them dust and cat-hair free until I can pull the data off this weekend.

[berry-k.livejournal.com]

OK, that sounds sensible then.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I have anti-static bags that are large enough. I have cloth bags.

[(Anonymous)]

Digital garages are a pain. They need maintenance and organization just like everything else. But they collect clutter so *much* faster.

Rule #1: Data storage formats change. Just as your new mac won't accept that old 5.5" floppy disk, there are no guarantees that computers five years from now will be able to read your aged hard drives.

If you need that data, take the time now to invest in an archival disc, and move it over. Catalog it. Though thankfully search engines are getting better and better, so the catalog part might be skip-able for the amount of data that you're likely to have on two or three out-dated PC disks.

Trust me. The head-in-the-sand approach both loses important data, and bites you in the behind later.

A - returning to her paid data herding job