Archiving small amounts of data--what's good? What about M-disc?

[Jane Curtis]

Currently have relatively small amount of data to archive. Any opinions? Has anyone used M-disc? All suggestions welcome
Want a technology that will still be around in at least 50 years. And one that won't degrade.
Thanks!
Jane

[rproffitt]

For now, the reigning king of archive is the printed word. At about 1 million words you can find works that have been around for 50 and more years.

I'm unsure what more assurance you want on M-disc after reading what's on the web. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2933478/m-disc-optical-media-reviewed-your-data-good-for-a-thousand-years.html is 20 times the time span you asked for. The problem I see is that you already see the ODD (optical disc drive) is going the way of the floppy.

[Jane Curtis]

Thank you, I appreciate your response.
Yes the printed word is excellent, but it has its vulnerabilities, and takes up more space than some possible other ways to go. So, in addition to the printed word, which is done, I would like to back up with some other technology. As you surmised, my concern about the M-disc is it becoming obsolete and therefore a wasted expense.
I am interested in what others have decided to do about this issue.
Jane

[rproffitt]

For me, it's evolution. I used punch cards at first (hey, they are still readable.) Then 8 inch floppy, some tapes then 5 1/4, 3.5 and now USB drives, sticks and optical. The neat part about all this is as time moved forward I could for cheap move my old stuff forward.

If the printed word was that vulnerable, it would not have examples that are centuries old.