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The main risks for data carriers are excessive temperature and humidity which
endanger the carrier; dust or other particulates which may obscure access to
the data; and in the case of optically encoded material, light, which may
damage the optically inscribed data. Modern data tapes are of such a high
coercivity, that accidental erasure by a magnetic field does not constitute a
major risk.
Magnetic data tapes may be integrated into a digital storage system. Typically
this would be housed in a clean computer room with controlled temperature
and relatively humidity set at 18C, and 40% RH, a continuous influx of clean,
dust-free air, with daily cleaning to prevent contamination. The conditions
would fluctuate no more than 2C and 10% RH in any given 24 hour period.
Magnetic data tapes stored for optimum carrier life (away from the computer
room environment) should be stored under more stringent conditions, at a
temperature between 18C and 10C, with a daily tolerance of no more than
1C, and between 30 and 40% RH with a tolerance of no more than 3%RH.
There are suggestions that very low temperatures (approaching or lower than
0C), may be detrimental to the life expectancy of certain carriers, however,
this has not been proven.
Redundancy and backup regimes. The importance of redundancy and backup
regimes cannot be overemphasised: they are fundamental to all digital
preservation programmes as a basic insurance against damage or loss to any
single copy.
While storing multiple copies of the same data does offer some protection
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