Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-sdd!ncr-sd!rb-dc1!shapiro From: shapiro@rb-dc1.UUCP (Mike Shapiro) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: 5.25" Diskettes for Storage Message-ID: <576@rb-dc1.UUCP> Date: 28 Jun 89 22:00:38 GMT References: <2515@lll-lcc.UUCP> <6107@brspyr1.BRS.Com> Reply-To: shapiro@rb-dc1.SanDiego.gould.UUCP (Michael Shapiro) Organization: Encore Computer, San Diego (was gould, soon to be extinct) Lines: 47 In article <6107@brspyr1.BRS.Com> davef@brspyr1.BRS.Com (Dave Fiske) writes (regarding magnetic media recording life): >Since floppies probably tend to get subjected more to varying magnetic >and environmental conditions, I would expect they would also show >deterioration over long periods of time. For most people, this >probably isn't a problem, since files from, say, 5 years ago, are >probably irrelevant by now. But if you have some very important >archival or backup files, it probably wouldn't hurt to make fresh >copies every few years. The other problem with magetic media backup (both tape and flexible disk) is the media format and recordng formats. I have some tapes which I thought were important at the time which are written on 7 track tapes at 800 bpi. They are in either CDC KRONOS or IBM unlabelled "convert mode" (3 8-bit bytes in 4 6-bit frames) format. If pressed (I don't anticipate I will be), I might be able to find hardware for reading them and could probably kludge some software if I needed to. (Several service bureaus provide conversion services, but I hope I don't need to read my tapes again. They are now souvenirs, so the quality of the data really doesn't matter.) For disks, it's getting harder and harder to find a place to read those 1 meg 8" CP/M floppies in some strange formats from less than ten years ago. I have some "critical" files in 5 1/4" Kaypro II CP/M SS/DD (200K) format from less than five years ago which I can still read on my PC clone by using an appropriate disk I/O software package. By converting to current MS-DOS format, I'll be able to read them for a while on machines with 5 1/4" drives. But it's most likely that the 5 1/4" drives will not be available two or three machines from now. (Will we still have 3 1/2" drives then?) So my financial records, important letters, and book manuscripts have been copied to disks with the current formats and will be copied to the next generation, whatever it is. In the long run, I think merely being able to read old magnetic media will be more of a problem than degraded data on them. Converting old critical files to new formats will help in solving both problems. You should probably plan on doing this each time you have a major equipment upgrade, while you still have the capability of reading the old format. -- Michael Shapiro, Encore Computer Corporation (formerly Gould/GSD) 15378 Avenue of Science, San Diego, CA 92128 (619)485-0910 UUCP: shapiro@rb-dc1 (This location will close, starting July 10. I will be moving on.)