Defining Disk Image Dump Standard

From: Paul R. Santa-Maria <paulrsm_at_ameritech.net>
Date: Tue May 30 19:56:30 2000

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> From: Richard Erlacher <richard_at_idcomm.com>
> To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> Subject: Re: Defining Disk Image Dump Standard
> Date: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 08:28 PM
>
> If you put floppy diskettes on the shelf and wait 20 years, you'll see
> what's left of your archive.

This weekend I backed up a set of factory-original Apple II CP/M disks for
MicroPro applications (Wordstar, Mailmerge, Spellstar, Datastar,
Reportstar, Calcstar, etc). The disks were dated 1979-1982 and there were
no errors reading them. I copied them twice: once to another floppy, and
once to the Apple II disk archive format (ShrinkIt) on my hard drive.
Twenty years is not too long if you use single-sided single density
diskettes that cost $10 each (in 1980 dollars!).

I don't trust today's ten-cent double-sided high-density diskettes for any
long term storage.

Paul R. Santa-Maria
Ann Arbor, Michigan USA
paulrsm_at_ameritech.net
Received on Tue May 30 2000 - 19:56:30 BST