I&#x27;ve started using M-DISC Blu-rays for my backups, which are supposed to last for quite a long time. I don&#x27;t know how long they will actually last in real-world conditions, but I&#x27;m hoping its long enough that if I ever need them, they&#x27;ll still work.<p>As for preserving things for future generations, I don&#x27;t know of any good storage techniques. The problem with M-DISCs and other mad-high-density digital storage is that the readers will (most likely) be completely unavailable long before the all of the discs have degraded.<p>Perhaps we should engrave our data in 2D barcodes, alongside some readable instructions describing how the data can be decoded... Wouldn&#x27;t have anywhere near the density of optical, magnetic or flash storage though. The whole situation does &quot;worry&quot; me a little, I agree entirely about future researchers not having much to go on.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;M-DISC" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;M-DISC</a>