Re: Escaping Data Rot

[rich12345 <aiiadict@gmail.com>]

On Mar 23, 2:51 pm, winston19842005 <bjjlya...@NOSPAMbellsouth.net>
wrote:
> On 3/23/10 6:12 PM, in article 4BA93CD5.16297.usenet_c...@a2central.com,
>
>
>
> "Tristan" <tris...@a2central.com.remove-tgt-this> wrote:
> > 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?
>
> 10 years? I have many that lasted less than half that. No scratches.
>


same here.  I had one go bad in about 6 months, zero scratches.


> Heck, I have trouble just making a new copy sometimes, two different
> computers, burn a cd and wind up with a coaster for your beer after the
> validation fails!

I don't back things up on CD anymore.  I don't even burn music
cd's...  I usually have to burn about 3 copies of my tech ref CD
before I get a good copy.


>
> And yeah, about the PC. Seems like the newer the OS or PC, the more issues
> it has reading the older media.

that's my experience as well...

are DVD's as bad?