Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 21:24:41 -0500 From: "Mike Avery" <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com> To: Jerry Dunham <jdunham@freeside.fc.net> Cc: grog@lemis.com (Greg Lehey), questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Further down the rathole (was: Re: Recommended tapes from HP?) Message-ID: <199907150229.VAA26689@hostigos.otherwhen.com> In-Reply-To: <199907142340.SAA37564@freeside.fc.net> References: <199907141328.IAA25886@hostigos.otherwhen.com> from Mike Avery at "Jul 14, 1999 08:24:41 am"
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On 14 Jul 99, at 18:40, Jerry Dunham wrote: > Mike Avery babbled: > > From: "Mike Avery" <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com> > > To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG > > Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 08:24:41 -0500 > > As a side note, a number of years back Scientific American ran an > > article on the life expectancy of backups. Their conclusion was that > > most backups were rendered useless by the march of technology sooner > > than the media showed problems. How much do you have on 8" floppy > > disks? How much of it can you restore? How about those 5" CPM > > diskettes? Can you recover that really cool code you wrote years back? > > Or even the tax information you created with a Lotus 1- 2-3 tax > > spreadsheet you found on a BBS? If you DO read the data, is it still > > useable in current spreadsheets? How about diskettes from your Lanier > > word processor? (They used to be popular...) > Not only do I have 8-inch disks (I was the mechanical engineer for the > Datapoint and Rat Shack machines that used 'em), but I have backups on > audio tape for my old Sinclairs and Atari backups on 21 MB Flopticals. :-( > Anyone know how to usefully read any of this stuff? (The tapes and > floppies, not the Flopticals. The Floptical drive is SCSI and therefore > accessible.) The easiest answer is bring up the machines you created the disks (etc) with and then read the data and send it to your favorite platform via a communications program. Of course, if you don't still have the Sinclairs, or if they don't still run, life gets harder. But... I bet you could find the devices on ebay or other auction sites..... or if you're active in a local computer club, someone there might be able to help. Other than the flopticals, the 8" floppies are probably the easiest.... there were too many audio tape formats, and most people were only too happy to not use audio tape once any kind of floppy became reliable (I remember how happy I was when my audio tape interface went up to 1200 bps... instead of 300. It took forever to load a 15k assembler at 300bps...). But for the 8" drives, you could get a controller for a PC, hook 'em up, and use one of a number of data conversion programs. > > If you can live with re-furbished drives, and older DLT drives are OK, > > you can also check out > > http://www.corpsys.com/store/products.asp?dept=Tape%20Drives > > > > They have an archive 4mm DAT (DDS2) changer for $495 US, and > > older DLT drives in 10/20 gig or 15/30 gig flavors for $695 US > > each. I've had good luck with the vendor in the past, and they offer an > > extended (6 year) warranty on refurbished merchandise. > > Good to know. Thanks. Since you live in the Austin area, don't forget to check out Howard Electronics.... they always have... ahhhh... interesting things at interesting prices. Mike ====================================================================== Mike Avery MAvery@mail.otherwhen.com (409)-842-2942 (work) ICQ: 16241692 * Spam is for lusers who can't get business any other way * A Randomly Selected Thought For The Day: Engraving is, in brief terms, the art of scratch. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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