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Re: Escaping Data Rot



On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:57:33 -0700, Michael J. Mahon wrote:


> How about searching for *.dsk?  (I assume they are still on your hard
> disk...)
> 
> -michael

If only it were that easy.

They could be on:
*One of a couple of EOL hard drives.
*A partial backup of at least 4 hard drives.
*An SD card (multiple choices).
*A backup of an SD card.
*A backup of a hard drive with a backup of the SD card on it.
*Oblivion.

I have recently undertook the task of searching for ~15 years of my 
projects and such. it is daunting to say the least. Things tucked away on 
rotten floppies found wedged in things, damaged or EOL CDs, worn out hard 
drives etc.

A warning to those archiving things. Remember when CDs were relatively 
new and they said they have approx. 10 year life span? They weren't lying.
Your early CD-Rs are quietly rotting.

Also a little more off topic, I found my G3 beige can read damaged PC 
formatted 3.5" floppies better than a PC can. Weird, eh?

Tristan.