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Renegade 13 said:Seems odd that a computer (or, more specifically, an operating system) would kinda 'decay' over time. I mean, it's just bits stored on a magnetic storage device, it shouldn't be *able* to decay! 
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Believe it or not, passing cosmic rays can flip individual bits on magnetic media.
Another problem on really old media is the "glue" holding the magnetic particles to the surface of the media deteriorating. The stuff you have to occaisionally clean off tape heads is particles that have scraped off the tape.
Most of the debris my registry cleaner finds is references to files that have been deleted.