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

[(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