@kasesag@hostux.social Hard drives can last a long time if taken care of, the 3 to 5 years metric is mostly for datacenters. But they need to be powered on. If they stay unplugged for a very (very) long time then the bits on the platters can start to flip. I can't really fit all of those in my PC case nor be bothered to continually check them for magnetic/mechanical decay.

With discs I can usually just visually inspect them. The only care they need is good climate control and they're always getting cheaper to duplicate.

M-Discs are specially engraved optical discs compatible with existing formats, but manufactured for durability. I have an M-Disc engraver handy but mostly just use it for CD burning up until now. Even some of the really abused normal discs in my collection are working fine so it seemed like the right call