gessman wrote:
To cap off what I said above, SSD, thumb drives, SD, CF and similar cards are not acceptable as long-term storage because without a periodic supply of electricity, data begins to "seep" out and becomes unreadable, or so I've read.
They are charge coupled devices (CCDs) and at some point in time the cell charge(s) DO bleed off and that is how data is lost/corrupted. A lot longer than you think. it's not like weeks or a month or three. I have a USB stick that is a couple of years old with songs on it for the car and still working fine. Plugging the device(s) in occasionally re-builds the charges.