Aphelion

Always keep backups, and always keep hard-copies . . . not that they may help you, since Those Who Write History will claim them to be forgeries -- possibly adding further charges against you.

Remember how computers were supposed to reduce the use of paper? It had the opposite effect, perhaps because someone said, "Hmm, what if this hard drive contains the only record of this important document? Machines can break . . . better print that and put it in the vault." I don't see this kind of thinking going away any time soon, even if a universal system does arise. Human distrust of machines is historic, and widely popular -- and not without good reason (blue-screens, hackers, viruses, blah blah).

Try using data stored on a 5.25" disk. Or even a 3.5" disk, if you don't have access to an old machine or an external drive.

And then there's the problem of deterioration of recording media (magnetic tape gets bleed-through unless accessed every couple of years, and the coating can decay; diskettes, similar problems with the coatings (and regular access won't help); optical disks also decay with time).

That's why a lot of science fiction stories feature things like text etched into metal plates and then encased in crystal for messages intended to survive for thousands of years and still be readable.

(Hard copy on paper is notoriously fragile, of course, particularly stuff printed during the cheap-pulp era where the paper itself contains enough acid to eventually make it disintegrate if exposed to normal light and humidity.)

RM