At 11:46 AM 3/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>I know I saw a post on this a while back but I don't recall
>any of the suggestions for preserving old floppies. I have
>a few things on 8 inch floppies that are pretty much irreplacable
>so any ideas are welcome!
>
Other than storing them in a cool, dark place I don't thing there's a whole
lot you can do to curb the aging effects. We're starting to see problems
with 9 Track and QIC tapes (5-10 yrs. old or >), not so much with 8"
diskettes--yet. The diskettes that have been stored properly seem to be
almost perfect at this point. I've been wondering if vacuum-packing with
one of those kitchen countertop units would help preserve the old diskettes
and tapes?
If you want to move the files/images to a modern format like CD for
preservation, the method probably depends on how you expect to go about
restoring the data to 8" when you need to. We have an 8" unit attached to a
PC that can read CP/M and IBM 3740-compatible (Series/1, S/23, S/36,
Displaywriter, etc.) and dump either images or files to PC disk, from there
to CD-ROM. This is how we're preserving the IBM 8" diskettes in our
collection. When we need a new copy of one of the 8" diskettes, we just
reverse the process. The only problem we've found so far is with
Displaywriter Textpack diskettes--for some reason we have to format the
diskette on the Displaywriter first, then write the image, otherwise the
diskette won't boot the machine. I'm sure this is a controller issue.
For your purposes, you'll probably have to figure out how to move files or
images (difficulty depends on the machine and OS, I suppose) between the
8"-equipped machine and a PC/Mac/etc. so you can store them on modern media
for later use. Even if you don't know how to move the files/images back to
the original machine at first, you've still preserved the files, you can
always buy the return ticket later. The easiest approach for moving files
usually seems to be ftp, Kermit or another comm package over null modem
cable to a host PC.
>Also, I have a number of machines that I don't use on any sort
>of regular basis that have hard drives in them. I don't expect
>these things to last forever but is there something I can do to
>prolong the life of some relatively unused machines. (An old
>Xerox comes to mind) Should I "start 'er up" every so often
>(like a car in storage) or is it better to just leave well enough
>alone?
It might be a good idea to do a backup/init disk/restore every few years to
refresh the disk, provided your tape drive is in good working order and you
can get fresh tapes.
>
>Thanks!
>Les
>lfb107_at_psu.edu
>
>
Thank you,
David Wollmann
dwollmann_at_ibmhelp.com
DST ibmhelp.com Technical Support
http://www.ibmhelp.com/
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Received on Wed Mar 11 1998 - 11:28:48 GMT