just like anything else. I'll wager the Beatles master tapes get shuttled (rewound onto a new reel) every year or so (magnetic tape that is not shuttled develops "print through" - a pre-echo bleed through from adjacent winding).

I just spent a few weeks transferring the music I wrote in the 80's to a hard drive (along with some CD backups). The original sequences were done with an Ensoniq ESQ-1 sequencer/synth and then data dumped as sysex messages to the floppy drive of a Mirage sampler. I still have the Mirage and the ESQ-1 and recently found my floppies in a box after the move. The Mirage is getting pretty twitchy and is clearly on its last legs so I babied it until I got all the data transferred.

The process involved loading 1/3 of a floppy into Mirage memory (this constitutes a full sequence memory dump) while running a special version of its OS, then patching its MIDI in to ESQ-1's MIDI out and vice versa. Telling ESQ to request sequence data over MIDI. Rebooting Mirage into performance OS. Repatching MIDI cables into a star config with ESQ-1 out feeding all MIDI in's including the computer sequencer (Digital Performer), editing ESQ track settings to echo all internally patched tracks to MIDI channels, slaving the computer to external sync and hitting record, hitting play on ESQ and "transferring" the sequence by "recording" the data in real time one segment at a time. Then recreating the arrangement/song sequence in DP, along with entering patch info and notes for each track.

Repeat for each of 30ish songs. I can get through a song in about 2 hours once I get into the groove.

The good news is I now have original performances captured as DP files on my Mac. The bad news is I'll probably have to do something similar 5 years from now.

Expect the same amount of work for your music lib, DVD's etc. Disk drives are getting cheaper and I see no reason not to have 3 HD's with full copies of all your media. For me its an external hard drive, my lap top, and a desktop server (ancient 400 MHz G4 with enlarged disk) that are all mirrored - plus judicious use of burned DVD's for particularly precious stuff.

Get used to it.