raden wrote:
In message ,
"dennis@home" writes

"Sim D." on@request wrote in message
. ..

Put it all on a cheap laptop.
Seal that up (without the battery) and they may be able to access the data
in a hundred years or so.
Assuming they still have electricity that is.

Didn't I write that ?

Anything on computer storage is likely to be unreadable in 100 years time as
standards have changed a few times.

You didn't really pay attention there did you ?

As long as you have 'lektrik, all you need to do is plug it in and
switch it on, the standards, obsolete or not, are internal to the
computer and as long as the electronics still works will be quite
readable

Based on my electronics knowledge.
After 100 years.
The hard drive will certainly not work, neither will the CD.
The LCD is unlikely to work, owing to diffusion of water and stuff into
the LCD.
The battery certainly won't work.

Tougher problems.
All the electrolytic capacitors inside (maybe 100) are likely to have at
best, the dielectric film broken down, and quite possibly to have leaked, and
the contents gone over the board, corroding it. The sealing isn't especially
good in many cases, and is certainly not up to 100 years.

I would expect most of the semiconductors to work.
The flash BIOS may be OK, some do claim 100 year retention, but...

In short - apart from the LCD, it's not impossible it could be revived.

It's going to be easier to reterofit a conventional PC so that it would last
that time.

I'd replace the low value electrolytics with film caps, and the high value
ones probably with some sort of more exotic cap.

A CRT monitor can have the same done with it.

I'd dissasemble the CD/DVD, and clean off all lubricants from it.

I would have doubts about the lens quality in commercial players - especially
solvent crazing of the lens.

Not to mention the problem with CD longevity.

It'd be easier if it was able to boot every 20 years or so, and rewrite
all the flash memory.

This is possible, but an interesting challenge.

Amongst other problems - the connectors will likely corrode.