Preserving old floppies, fixed disks...

From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_northernway.net>
Date: Wed Mar 11 13:25:00 1998

;-) Clearing the snow from my glasses, I saw David Wollmann typed:

>At 10:13 AM 3/11/98 -0800, you wrote:
>[snip]
>>That said, I have 8" floppies from the early 70's that still read
>>just fine. I can't say the same for CD-ROM's...
>
>Are you having problems reading the silver discs, or CD-Rs? How old are they?
>
>I'm just curious to know how CDs are holding up over time. I've heard that
>some CD-R discs aren't lasting more than a couple years, while others have
>no problems.

There's also the problem that folks seem to think that CD-R's are
indestructable so they do not take care of them (i.e. not putting them back
in the jewel cases, playing shuffleboard with them, etc.).

My ex-supervisor had an (at the time) useless CD and said "There's no way
you can hurt this CD so it can't be read in a player." I took it, put it
between my thumb and middle finger, pushed on the middle with my index
finger, and started sqeezing. 10 seconds later (I went slow for effect) the
CD shattered into about 30 shards. I meticulously picked up each little
piece, placed them in my ex-sup's hands and said "If you can get a
directory of this thing, I'll give you $500. (the guy's a big-time gambler)
I think he tried duct tape & superglue -- I wasn't worried.

On a related note, I have a CD-RW and about 12 blank CD-R's yet... but one
I'm saving seems more special. The run-of-the-mill stuff are my Maxells --
$0.99 after rebate. They boast a (max) 30 year shelf life. However, the one
Kodak I have here boasts:

        "Stable Dye. The media contains a carefully selected dye recording layer
that protects against the effects of light, humidity, and temperature,
ensuring long data life of 100 years or more."

Whether or not it's true, my classic info will be going on that disk.

HTH,
"Merch"
--
Roger Merchberger       | If at first you don't succeed,
Owner, MerchWare        | nuclear warhead disarmament should
zmerch_at_northernway.net  | *not* be your first career choice.
Received on Wed Mar 11 1998 - 13:25:00 GMT

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