20% of HDDs used for music backups in the 1990s no longer work

Used by many companies to back up important recordings and information during the 1990s, 20% of HDDs from that time no longer work. The estimate comes from Iron Mountain, a company specializing in data management, information destruction and backups that works for the music industry.

This means that many original recordings, unreleased tracks, live sessions and other important historical data held by record labels may have been lost forever. The main reason for this would be the lack of maintenance of old equipment and data, which naturally degrade over time.

According to Robert Koszela, Global Director of Global Strategies and Growth at Iron Mountain, It is not uncommon for the company to be approached by people with drives that appear to be intact but no longer work.. “It’s so sad to see a project arrive at the studio, a hard drive with a brand new case and the packaging and tags of whoever bought it still there.”, he explained to the website Mix.

Old HDDs pose problems for the music industry

Koszela explained to the site that the loss of important materials as a result of the degradation of physical media is not a novelty for the music industry. In the 1990s, as many record companies began to migrate to using HDDs, they discovered that multiple recordings to magnetic media no longer worked either.

However, the solution found at the time also has its problems, especially when stored in inadequate conditions. According to Mix, many of the HHDs used in the area were designed to last between three and five years. And not even drives specialized in data archiving are protected from premature death.

At the moment, the only solution to the problem is to perform regular maintenance on equipment, ensuring that past backups are moved to more modern and reliable media. However, given that much of the information is only accessed when searching for commercially viable tracks, this means that many works will continue to be lostespecially artists with less market potential.

Fonte: Tom’s Hardware, Mix