Smart people will migate as technology changes. But frankly, not everyone is
diligent in that regard. We don't need to wait for later generations for the
problem to crop up. I still get reports of people who have taken a break
from genealogy and now want to resurrect data from PAF 2.31 that they had
stored on 5 1/4 floppies. While it is still possible to pull the data off
and convert it, there is a big hassle factor in finding someone with the
right hardware and software.
Gary Templeman
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jenny M Benson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 2:24 PM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Warning, Storage Disks
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote
People will always be able to read paper prints. But can we really be sure
that CDs, DVD, even external drives will still be easily readable 20 years
from now without esoteric equipment? If kept in some program format
(Legacy, or other genealogy program) will someone 50 years from now be
able
to find a copy of the program (or even Windows) to open these files?
But a type of storage media doesn't suddenly become obsolete overnight and
few people will abandon their Legacy tree for 50 years.
When we know a new medium is taking over (as when 3.5" disks began to take
over from floppies) we will migrate our working files and backups. If
Legacy announce that an older version of the program will no longer be
supported and its files will not be read by a new version, we will upgrade
Legacy. If we pass on having made no arrangements for the dispersal of
our records and no family members are interested, our hard drives will be
wiped and our disks put in the trash.
--
Jenny M Benson
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