Procedures for Managing High-Risk or Permanent Electronic Records

February 2, 2002

1. Purpose and rationale: Records which would pose a significant legal, fiscal, or administrative risk to agencies if the data could not be accessed or read for the entire length of their retention, or permanent records whose historical value continues on indefinitely, need to be treated with special care so that they continue to exist. Electronic media tends to be rather fragile, and even media which may physically last longer is still subject to technological obsolescence. Rather than attempt to house old equipment and out-of-date software to accommodate the old media, the Archives recommends specific procedures to manage these records and keep them available for use.

2. Scope: The procedures outlined below are intended for the recordkeeping copy which has been moved offline, not for backup tapes. If the recordkeeping copy is still on a hard drive, these procedures do not apply.

3. Preferred Storage Media: Magnetic tape is the media of choice for the recordkeeping copy, not because it lasts the longest, but because it shows signs when it starts to age, in the form of read errors. As soon as these signs become apparent, the records can be copied to new tape. The National Media Laboratory has tested different varieties of magnetic tape for durability, and " tape has be shown to have the fewest number of problems.

Best practice is to make two copies of each record, using different manufacturing lots, so that errors introduced during manufacturing do not cause loss of data on both copies. Choose the highest grade media from known manufacturers.

Compact disks and DVDs may potentially last a long time, but they are also prone to error and, unlike magnetic tape, do not give any warning before they fail. Because of their durability and ease of use, and despite technological obsolescence issues, CDs and DVDs may be used as a backup copy for high-risk or permanent electronic records.

4. Procedures: Specifically, verify no more than 6 months prior to use that the magnetic media used to store high-risk or permanent electronic records are free of permanent errors or defects.

4.1 Fully wind/rewind tapes under constant tension prior to use.

4.2 Test a 3 percent statistical sample every 5 years of all volumes, or 10 volumes of each type of magnetic media, whichever is larger, to identify any loss of data and to discover and correct the causes of data loss. Special control media may be stored for this purpose. If temperature or humidity variations occur in the storage environment, sample testing should be more frequent.

4.3 Copy immediately onto new media any high-risk or permanent electronic records stored on media with 10 or more permanent errors per volume. Make a second copy onto new media from a different manufacturing lot.

4.4 Copy all high-risk or permanent electronic records onto new media before the media are 10 years old. Copying should preferably be done within the storage environment to minimize the media's exposure to temperature and humidity fluctuations. Make a second copy onto new media from a different manufacturing lot.

4.5 Prepare external non-erasable labels which provide a unique identifier for each volume, the name of the organizational unit responsible, the record series title, and the record series number.

4.6 Store magnetic media before and after recording in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment, according to ANSI/PIMA IT9.23 - 1998, Imaging Materials Polyester Base Magnetic Tape Storage.

This page was last updated August 1, 2008.