Storage technologies are advancing so fast that saving everything to the next
technology is a current strategy. When we hit the next CD/DVD bump with
only a 8 improvement or so increase this strategy becomes painful.

We have backups here on

8 track 600/1200/2400 bpi tapes
DECtape also 8 track tape on special reels and format
RK-05 "pizza platter" disks 2.4Mb
paper tape
Kanas City standard audio tapes
ADAM tape format (developed here)
3 different cartridge backup types
8 inch floppy disk in at least 3 incompatible formats
5 inch apple ][ ,PC and mac
3 1/2 apple, mac and PC formats in two densities
ZIP drive disc's
CD's
DVD's

None of these has lasted a particularly long time. the longest surviving
still in use is is probably 3 1/2 1.4M disks. The paper tape is the most
stable in we can engineer a new reliable reader at almost any time in
the future

w..


Robert Rolf wrote:

> Funny how really primitive storage technologies like paper tape or black and white
> film are readable decades (or centuries) later, but modern ones like tape and disks
> are NOT.
> The archivists and historians of the next century are going to hate us since
> our historical records will end in the 1970's when everything went magnetic.
>
> Robert
>
> Walter Banks wrote:
>
> > I am pretty certain that I have this on PDP-11 DECtape as
> > well. It might be on RK-05 (2.5M) removable hard disks.
> > I have a PDP-11 that can read RK-05's hasn't been
> > powered up for at least 10 years. I think the best bet is
> > the paper tape. Once read I am sure that I will wince
> > tat  my coding style from 33 years ago.
> >
> > It was written in asm
> >
> > w..
> >
> > William Chops Westfield wrote:
> >
> >
> >>On Apr 13, 2007, at 4:54 PM, Walter Banks wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>When I get this read I'll post this relic from the past.
> >>
> >>Sigh.  My relics from that timeframe got put on MODERN media.
> >>Like DECTape.  Which became unreadable pretty much immediately
> >>thereafter.
> >>But I think it's just as well that I can't get a look at the old basic
> >>programs that I had named after assorted girls I knew...
> >>
> >>BillW
> >>--
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> >
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