514" Optical Disks

Actually optical disk are a much more stable medium than tape. In fact tape is easily corrupt. I say this as someone who has used all the mediums mentioned during the past 22 years in realworld work situations. Of all the ones you speak of optical disks will outlast any of them. Most that you mention(Zip, Jazz and LS-120) in reality are no more than upgraded floppy disks. In its time Syquest (44mb to 250mb)was a reasonable transfer disk though it had a high failure rate. But its hey day was was the early 90's to about 2000. After that CD-Rs became cheap enough to use for storage and back ups. The Zip was popular as a cheaper alternative to Syquest. May be the worst designed storage ever. Ah...the click of rest! Jaz and LS-120 came and went quicker than a purse snatcher. The only real problem with opticals are the player-recorders. Some are made better than others. No doubt tape will continue to be popular, its cheap and easy to use. But tapes willl corrupt easily if not stored correctly. Heat, electrical fields and speaker magnets are the usual culprits. Plus tape has a shelf life of 8 to 10 years. If cared for opticals will virtually last forever. I think flash drives are the storage medim of the future. They keep getting larger and cheaper and very stable. I just wanted to give a different perspective on your rant.

Bolshoy Huy