At 3/18/99 01:43 PM , Wirt Atmar wrote:
<snip>
>To a degree, you can say that 1.44MB has become so small that it is no longer
>useful. I would wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment if it weren't for the
>large stack of 1.44MB floppies on my desk and in my drawers.
<snip>
>Wirt Atmar

I have to agree with Wirt.  For months I've been slowly copying hundreds of
old HP 150 710K format floppies (mostly during the commercial breaks in TV
shows, so progress has been slow).  The 710K floppies contain data that I
need to keep, so before the old HP 150's (which are over 15 years old now)
fail I'm copying the 710K floppies to 720K format (which PC's can read).  I
couldn't find any blank DD floppies, so I'm using HD floppies (1.44M),
covering the sense hole, and reformatting them at 720K.

For a while I was planning on copying the 720K floppies to the PC hard
drive and then making tapes, but the tape technology (and support for old
tape drives) comes and goes so fast that I was forced to the conclusion
that no matter what tape format I chose, the format would be hard to
support in two or three years.

So now I plan to burn a couple of CD-ROMs with the floppy data.  The life
clock is probably counting down on CD-ROMs, what with home/office writable
DVD not far off, but hopefully the CD-ROM format will last a few more years.

Now I just need to do something with all those old QIC-80 tapes, 1600 BPI
tapes, 6250 BPI tapes, TR-1 tapes, TR-3 tapes, ...

John
--------------------------------------------------------------
John Korb                            email: [log in to unmask]
Innovative Software Solutions, Inc.

The thoughts, comments, and opinions expressed herein are mine
and do not reflect those of my employer(s), or anyone else.