restored the device and data was successfully retrieved. Magnetic media Magnetic tapes consist of narrow bands of a magnetic medium bonded in paper or plastic. The magnetic medium passes across a semi-fixed head which reads or writes data. Typically, magnetic media has maximum lifetime of about 50 years although this assumes optimal storage conditions; life expectancy can decrease rapidly depending on storage conditions and the resilience and reliability of hardware components. magnetic tape reels magnetic stripe cards magnetic cards cassette tapes video cassette tapes Magnetic disks and drums include a rotating magnetic medium combined with a movable read/write head. floppy disks zip drives hard disks and drums Non-magnetic media punched paper-tape punched cards optical media (rotating media combined with a moveable read/write head comprising a laser), such as: pressed CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs Write once read many (WORM) media such as CD-R, DVD±R, BD-R. Rewriteable media such as CD-RW, DVD±RW, BD-RE. Some disc types can have multiple data layers for greater storage capacity. Printing technology Although not a digital storage medium in itself, printing hard-copies of documents and images remains a popular means of representing digital data and possibly acquires the qualities associated with original documents especially their potential for endurance. More recent advances in printer technology have raised the quality of photographic images in particular. Unfortunately the permanence of printed documents cannot be easily discerned from the documents themselves. wet-ribbon inked printers heat-sensitive papers, such as FAX rolls NCR and other carbon technologies ink-jet printers wax-based inks e.g. DataProducts SI810 water-based inks other bases mono laser printers colour laser printers Financial Driven Resources A way of preserving digital content through means of financial trusts. The data is driven with financial investments typically assigned to a Trust Company which pay traditional storage providers to house data for long periods of time with the interest gained on the principal. In 2008 a series of companies such as LivingStory.com and Orysa.com started offering these services to store point in time accounting data and provide consumer archive services. Soft storage technology The short-comings of some storage media is already well recognised and various attempts have been made to supplement the permanence of an under-lying technology. These "soft storage technologies" enhance their base technology by applying software or system techniques often within quite narrow fields of data storage and not always with the explicit intention of improving digital permanence. RAID systems Distributed systems, such as