Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!menudo.uh.edu!nuchat!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: "Bad" backups Message-ID: Date: 3 Dec 90 01:04:46 GMT References: <36371@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <1990Nov20.041806.29066@digibd.com> <1990Nov22.123610.27246@eff.org> <61265@bbn.BBN.COM> <49185@cornell.UUCP> Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 17 In article <49185@cornell.UUCP> wayner@fulla.cs.cornell.edu (Peter Wayner) writes: > In Poland and the Eastern Bloc, floppy disks were the favored method > of illegal information storage. They would just bend them in half and > bye, bye evidence. I've heard this too. I think it's pretty naive. I lent a friend some software on floppies once, and as he was coming back with them it started pouring down rain. He dropped the box while crossing the parking lot. Floppies all over the place, some of them stepped on and I would be surprised if some weren't run over as well. They were wet of course. I cut the jackets open and dried out the disks... and was able to read most of them after putting them in a new sleeve. Floppies can be tougher than people think. (on the other hand, I've worked in environments with dust in the air where an average floppy had a MTTF less than a week) -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' +1 713 274 5180. 'U` peter@ferranti.com