Posted on 11/29/2004 8:47:34 AM PST by Dr. Zzyzx
You either didn't read or didn't understand the story.
100 years? No. Not even close. 5-10 years in most cases.
Even in cases where the physical media remains intact and readable, it can be a challenge to find software that reads old file formats. Also the software that reads many old files will not function on newer operating systems. Many old Windows 3.1 programs will not function in XP, generating errors on load up.
So pick your poison. Keep old machines handy to read old files, and those machines *might* boot up for you later when you decide you need these old files. Or cross your fingers and hope the OS of tomorrow will care to play nice with your data - if your CD is still good, which is a long shot.
I wouldn't count on it.
Here's a depressing little snippet:
The Dutch PC-Active magazine has done an extensive CD-R quality test. For the test the magazine has taken a look at the readability of discs, thirty different CD-R brands, that were recorded twenty months ago. The results were quite shocking as a lot of the discs simply couldn't be read anymore:
Roughly translated from Dutch:
The tests showed that a number of CD-Rs had become completely unreadable while others could only be read back partially. Data that was recorded 20 months ago had become unreadable. These included discs of well known and lesser known manufacturers.
Kodac's revenge?
> Different type of CD. Back then they were analog.
CDs have never been analog. The underlying data structure
introduced in 1984 is digital.
Wut yoo sed.
Ooops, it's Kodak, right?
The other possibility is printing the images on paper in digital form. I recall a technique that would store digital data on paper that looked as if someone sprayed ink randomly at it.
Then of course, there is always antique "silver" film...
Personally yes, Apple IIc.
Workwise, no.
About 7 years ago, I migrated some 300 3.5" floppies to CD-Rs. It gave me a chance to weed out and decide what I wanted to keep.
Last year I bought a DVD-R. I have some 20 CD-Rs, mostly old software versions. I think about migrating to DVD-R and tossing, but some of the old programs are still usable. I have a laptop that runs Win95 and know people still running Win98. So, I'll wait awhile before dumping the older programs.
It was definately a selling point for me.
How expensive is it and where is it offered?
Easy. Depending upon the setup you have, there are several ways.
1. Copy floppy from old to new. You most likely have a Single-Side (SS) Single-Density, or Double Density (DD) Floppy Disc Drive (FDD). SS-SD is 180kb, SS-DD is 360kb DD-SD is 720kb and DD-HD is 1.2MB (all but DD-HD are correct or close, could be 3.5" ;) .) You need to buy a 5 1/4" (5.25") FDD off of eBay (or perhaps the local PC repair shop.) I don't recall if the interface is different, it's been a few years, but I think that a current ATX Legacy FDD controller/interface/cable will work with the old/new system -- YMMV.
2. The method I'd use. You need to use Hyperterm on your Windows PC and a terminal app on the ancient PC; connect them with a null modem cable and to a Xmodem/YmodemG or similar transfer protocol. Check the Hyperterm help files or Google a bit as I don't have time to give a null terminal HOW-TO. Of course, the hard part may be finding an old enough terminal app to use. If the old PC has a modem attached (and appropriate software) you are probably set.
You can hook up a modem or even just a serial link and transfer files.
Or, just take the disk drive out, put it in your "regular computer" and copy the files to your "regular" hard disk.
I can make a print from the negative of a picture my parents took in the 50's. If I had a negative from 1900 or before, I could make a print of it as well. Good luck to those trying to make prints off of a floppy or CD in 2004.
I'm in the process of "going digital", but I will make semi-archival prints of everything I think is worth saving.
Yet Cohen said he had noticed that some of his CDs, especially the rewritable variety, are already beginning to degrade. "About a year and a half ago they started to deteriorate and become unreadable," he said.
Rotate in new CD replacements every several years.
Always convert to the latest format.
Why not?? Paper photographs have lasted 100 years. Tintypes have lasted 100 years. Cave paintings have lasted 1000+ years.
bump
I make prints off of CDs all the time... am I missing something here? Did you mean to say 2104?
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