#CsNav has exploded!
8 messages in this thread
Are you paying your Compuserve bills on time? 🙂 But seriously, where's your
daily backup when you need it?
Daily backup? Bwahahahahaha!!! <g>
ana /krazy images
Put an Exabyte or DAT to use! Use it daily! Store the tapes in a safe,
off-site place! Do it now, or be prepared to lose important data at what will
seem to be the worst time ever!
Hey John, slow down <bg> Thanks for the advice, anyway 🙂 I backup all the
important stuff on MO-128 disks, both from the 8100 and the PCs. Faster and
more durable than magnetic storage <g> Does this mean that I consider CIS
non-important stuff? Well, put it this way: if you say yes, you win the trip to
Bahamas 🙂 Seriously, I have all the important threads saved, but a daily
backup of _all_ the stuff I got from CIS is not my idea of low utility cost <g>
ana /krazy images
I use a text-oriented telecom program called Pro-YAM. I've saved every byte of
every online session I've had since 1986f or so. I've got them all on boxes of
floppies in the basement. Someday, there will be a magnetic medium that will
hold them all in one place, with a nice inverted index to help me find things.
🙂 I'm a digital packrat! My great-grandmother would be fproud. I think she
saved every (paper) letter she received in her lifetime, too, because we found
them all in the attic.
>> I've got them all on boxes of floppies in the basement.
If you're ever planning on using that data again, I hope you have it well
sealed. Disks do not hold up at all for long storage periods. The materials
break down with almost any level of exposure.
I recall reading an article on this somewhere, where magnetic media generally
won't last longer than 10 years and that's when kept in cool dry storage. (this
goes for tapes as well)
Just thought I'd mention it.
J-me
Tapes= slow magnetic devices with very limited lifetime 🙂
ana /krazy images
No, they're just in cardboard boxes, and usually stored in basements.
I've always wondered about floppies. I'd wished that someone did a
deep, in-depth analysis of their modes of failure. I think there's
conventional wisdom about what makes them fail, and I don't think it
has anything to do with what actually makes them fail. For example,
does a refrigerator magnet have the power to scrog a disk and under
what circumstances? How does this susceptibility vary with
temperature, motion, etc.? I've heard people say that static
electricity could zap a disc. I've found that disks can get zapped
after being cushioned in an inch of bubble pack, yet I've had more
reliability from bare disks mailed cross-country in a plain business
envelope for 29 cents.
I have thought about transferring all that data to other formats, but
in terms of parallelism and reliability, I have a hard time believing
that tapes would hold up longer than floppies. Perhaps a one-off
CDROM would be best.