Survival of Data for Surviving?!?

There's a whole lot of good stuff in digital format these days. We're talking from movies, documentaries, music and other audio recordings, not to forget books, maps, and anything else you can think of.

In fact, a person in a survivalist event could be aidded by the properly protected I/O device for data use such as a PDA with memorie cards or a worthwhile laptop. These devices even have the ability to be charged by solar power.

However this sounds great but all that utility can be lost with one EMP eruption.

What way might smaller data and devices be saved in the case of such events?

Would a lead box work well enough? Would these things need be burried? What ideas might you think in saving data and devices?

You could try and store data on DVD's, I'm no expert but I think they would be safe from EMP, from what I've heard though the information starts to degrade after 5 years (does anyone know if this is actually true?), you could try a portable hard drive shielded in a faraday cage as they apparently last longer.

Or you could print all of books onto decent paper then lamenate it, copy all of the music and other audio onto record, not sure what you could do with movies though.

Fred, the options of DVD and hard drive in enclosure would probably save the data.

But, in a large EMP blast, more importantly, is the need to read the data. I have no doubt stores of DVDs will survive, but little to no DVD players, rendering the data on the discs useless.

I think Incarnate is on the right track with a small device, way to power it, and the data to store on that device.

Incarnate, I would build a small faraday (sp?) cage, Then put that inside of a EMP shielding box (I'm a layman on the subject), and then bury it in the ground, or in a cave or such.

The reason I think your idea of burial is a good idea, is that the Earth is one of the best EMP shielders, but it wouldn't be enough by itself. Also, solar chargers would be great, as they are getting smaller and smaller.

I have thought about ways to preserve my IPOD, since it can hold tons of music, and charging it wouldn't take too much juice. You could easily store information such as ebooks, and video tutorials and movies and such on IPODs also. Some of the Linux Hacks and such allow you to read almost any file type.

Very Interesting Thread! I think its very important for us to Preserve Knowledge. That was one of the most important things in the past. I can't imagine how much knowledge has simply been lost over the years.

Just a theory, but what if the Atlantians kept all of their information electronically. There are stories of them having electricity. That could explain why no data/information has survived, whereas primitive stone etchings survive much longer. That makes Paper/lamination a good alternative, but ultimately bulky. Ebooks FTW.

If I chose this way to store data it would be with 1 of these...

Terabyte hard drive

Or maybe 2 if I had a lot of data, the only problem with storing data on something like this is it will break after a while, all of the electronics have MTBF's (Mean Time Before Failure), eventually they will break down through general use so I dont think there a good choice for storing lost records or anything.

It would be safer to use the old fashioned method and store books, they take more space but are a lot more robust than a hard drive, you could still use hard drives in conjunction with books, that way you arn't putting all your eggs in 1 basket.