Digitisation -
This is how long storage media last

CDs and DVDs

The durability of CDs and DVDs depends on whether the data has been burned (i.e. written) or pressed onto these storage media. When archiving your digital data, the images or videos are burned onto the DVD or CD. With a durability of up to 30 years, burned DVDs have a clear advantage over burned CDs, which only survive for 5 to 10 years.

They last significantly longer than burnt DVDs or CDs thanks to a different manufacturing process.

Durability of USB drives and SD cards

USB sticks and SD cards are NAND flash memories. With these data carriers, individual memory cells are interconnected and in this way larger storage spaces are created. USB sticks and SD cards usually last about 10 years or longer. Data carriers that are only used for archiving digital images are particularly durable.

The less often the data on the stick is overwritten, the longer it will last. The USB stick also has two advantages over the hard drive: it saves space and is less sensitive! Unfortunately, USB sticks and SD cards are lost much more often due to their size and it is difficult to write on them. So store these data carriers in a safe place and remember to name your digital pictures and videos.

Durability of hard disks

Regardless of whether internal or external – there are basically two models of hard disks: HDD and SSD. What is the difference between HDD and SSD hard drives? HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive. These traditional hard disks still work via a mechanical write head, which makes them somewhat slower than SSD hard disks. SSD stands for Solid State Disk. SSD hard disks work via a chip and do without mechanical elements. This makes them not only faster, but also lighter, more compact and more durable.

HDD hard disks

HDDs are said to have a lifespan of 3 to 5 years if they are in constant use. At first glance, this is not very much. However, bear in mind that it is not unusual nowadays to buy a new PC at a similar interval. Scanned pictures and videos can be copied to a new hard disk with a simple click of the mouse.

SSD hard disks

The durability of SSD hard disks depends on the degree of use and the storage conditions, just as with USB sticks or SD cards. Since SSD hard disks do not have moving mechanical parts compared to HDD hard disks, the shelf life is longer: about 5 to 10 years.

Other factors influencing the durability of flash memories:

In addition to the durability of SSD hard disks, USB sticks or SD cards in years, one often also finds information on the durability in write and erase cycles. This has to do with the “flash cells” on flash memories, which unfortunately cannot be erased and rewritten an infinite number of times. Here, manufacturers’ specifications range from 1000 to 100,000 write and erase cycles before the maximum lifespan is reached. The wide range is due to different storage technologies. Here is a brief overview:

• Single-level cell memories can tolerate up to 100,000 write cycles per cell and are considered particularly fast, durable and fail-safe.
• Multi-level cell memories can tolerate up to 10,000 write cycles per cell, but are cheaper in cost.
• Triple-level cell memories can cope with approx. 3000 memory cycles per cell.
• Quad-level cell memories are much cheaper, have more storage capacity and a higher storage density, but also only have a service life of approx. 1000 write or erase cycles per cell.

Clouds

Cloud storage is an online storage service offered by Dropbox, Apple or Google, for example. You upload your data online and the provider stores everything on internal, physical hard drives. Backups are created again and again, so theoretically you don’t have to worry about your pictures. However, if the providers of this cloud storage get hacked or go out of business, you don’t know what will happen to your data. So you should rather use cloud storage as a supplement to another storage method to additionally secure your digitised images.

A big advantage of cloud storage is also that you can access your images from anywhere using this method. You can also give family members or friends access to your digital picture collections. So you can then also share the most beautiful experiences from days gone by with your aunt in America or your girlfriend in Australia.

Durability of storage media – A summary