Geeks, wanna keep your important information for generations? Yes you can. It is made possible by Hitachi with its new technology called the “quartz glass storage method” which can store information for hundreds of millions of years.

This method of storing information uses laser to engrave a piece of quartz glass with dots that correspond to binary code.  The information can be seen through an optical microscope.  And to be able to read all the information, the storage method entails heating one of the bits of glass to a temperature of 1,000° Celsius for about two hours.  Hitachi is confident that information is preserved for the next couple of generations.

To compare, an ordinary hard drive fails for about 10 years or less while a frequently used flash disk may be around half as long.  Likewise, tape storage lasts for 15 to 30 years. But this Hitachi’s creation is expected to be used for long-term data archives of cultural information and a lot more. Though, it’s density in storing data is said to be poor because tests show that it only supports data in four layers on a quartz slab and can store around 40MB per square inch.

More updates on this technology as Hitachi is expected to give more details to be announced at International Symposium on Optical Memory in Tokyo, Japan this coming September 30.  Stay tuned.