Can the drive that made the floppies read them? If so, this is a common problem. Floppies created on one drive are not readable on another. This usually indicates a head alignment problem.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff Johnson Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 19:56 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: How old is your oldest, viable DVD? I have a customer that lives 60 mile away that has a dos machine. No internet, no network, no nothing except for floppy. I bought some new floppies at Staples and went down to back up his system. Unreadable on my end! It is important to know that your back up is working. Jeff --------------- Jeff Johnson [email protected] (623) 582-0323 www.san-dc.com On 02/08/2011 05:54 PM, Anthony J. Gundrum wrote: > Floppies, yeah. I have a couple hundred of the 5.25" and 3.5" > varieties sitting in a closet. I've been tempted at times to see if > they work. As for discs I have many CDs that go back as far as 1985. > DVDs are another story. I never started using them until about 2002 > and it was only movies at that point. > > The only time I've had any kind of disc failure is when it was a bad > burn (usually on my part) or there was physical damage. Outside of > that, I've made many backups to discs which have collected into piles. > > The guts of an external hard drive are no different than an internal > hard drive. To answer your question, the platters of a hard drive > have a long life expectancy. But the caveat is a hard drive is more likely to have > mechanical failure before the data on the platters deteriorate. I wouldn't > recommend keeping any hard drive in service for more than a few years > if it's used for backing up critical data. Even then, having periodic > DVD or Blu-Ray backups can prove to be a life saver. As Blu-Ray > becomes cheaper it will become a more viable backup solution. > > John > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff Johnson > Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 18:58 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: How old is your oldest, viable DVD? > > Thanks for the thread, Lew. Remember floppies? I have code that goes > back to 1990 and want to make sure it is available. I just had to > work on a 1992 program. I am updating to the new stuff, but the > business rules are the same, etc. > > My question is, how long can you keep stuff on an external hard drive > since that is how I am saving things now. I have been backing > everything up to external hard drives and swapping them out off site. > > Because of non-disclosure agreements with major corporations I am > still reluctant to use an off line storage service. > > I guess they will be good until they fail. ;^) > > Jeff > > --------------- > > Jeff Johnson > [email protected] > (623) 582-0323 > > www.san-dc.com > > > On 02/08/2011 01:19 PM, Lew wrote: >> Just checking out the (mythical?) mandate to duplicate these babies >> onto > new media every x years. >> Lew >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: "Alan Bourke"<[email protected]> >> Sender: [email protected] >> Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:35:41 >> To:<[email protected]> >> Reply-To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: VFP and Source control Thanks! >> >> Big organizations, they're just bullsh!t-multiplying devices. >> >> On Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:09 -0600, "Ken Kixmoeller (ProFox)" >> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> Personally, I have found that to be the *only* way to survive in big >>> organizations. Back when I used to work for a living, I can recall >>> several times being called to the carpet for not using proper >>> channels. "Gee, I am sorry -- I didn't know. Sure is good to have it >>> done and working though, isn't it?" >>> >>> Once I had a corporate advertising person red in the face trying to >>> explain just how badly I could have messed up. Very funny, as I >>> didn't actually *violate* the rule, I just didn't *know* the rule. >>> (Or in her lexicon, I "almost' broke the rule. Go figure.) >>> >>> Ken >>> >>> On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 7:57 PM, Jeff Johnson<[email protected]> wrote: >>>> I don't know. That just struck me as an interesting quote. I find >>>> myself thinking about it! >>>> >>>> Sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
