Data Storage: From Digits To Dust

Up to 20% of the information carefully collected on Jet Propulsion Laboratory computers during NASA's 1976 Viking mission to Mars has been lost. Some POW and MIA records and casualty counts from the Vietnam War, stored on Defense Dept. computers, can no longer be read. And at Pennsylvania State University, all but 14 of some 3,000 computer files containing student records and school history are no longer accessible because of missing or outmoded software.

What's going on? The world is in a headlong rush to go digital. From Tokyo to Tampa, schools, libraries, factories, and churches are forking over great sums to computerize everything from Johnny's latest math scores to Aunt Hattie's dental records. Computers are supposed to help us manage this information explosion by storing oceans of data that, at some later date, can be recalled at the click of a mouse.