17 Mar
2005
17 Mar
'05
1:35 p.m.
Perhaps it's just me, but I have stacks upon stacks of
5.25" floppy disks that have been around since ~1981,
still used regularly, and have yet to see one fail.
Mostly Janus, Nashua, and Verbatim DataLife DS/DDs.
However, it seems to take only my being within 15 feet
of a 3.5" floppy to corrupt the data on it, even if
it's a brand new disk...
However, I am a tad concerned about what will happen
to our prized hobby when such items as 9-track tapes,
TK50s, and TU58 DECtape-IIs truly become absolute
unobtainium. I suppose our good friend Warren will
probably continue supplying us with VTserver for
console boot media, but there's just nothing quite
like loading up The Real Thing (tm)... A huge part of the
retrocomputing experience for me, personally. Especially
9-track open-reel tapes...
I'm not even going to go into the availability of such
items as RD54s and RA81s... too depressing for a rainy
windy afternoon in the southwest...
John
der Mouse writes:
> However, I find that media is much more sturdy
than these discussions
> would indicate. We tend to gripe very loudly (and rightly so) when
> poor quality backup media takes our data with it. But what about all
> those times we go back to our old backups and thankfully find what we
> need?
John P. Willis