MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Legacy formats are ticking time bomb for lost data

RWood · 07-03-2007, 09:50 PM

File formats are only part of the problem. Disk and OS formats are also involved.

I just came across a box of old Apple ][ disks in the basement from the early 1980s. Setting aside that the machine itself has been out of production for over 20 years, even the few surviving 5.25" floppy drives cannot read the disk format without special programs (if there are even such things anymore for Apple disks.) Plus even if I had the ability to read the disks would the data still be there or would they be like the old cassette music tapes from that era and and just hiss at me?

Thankfully (for me) there was nothing on the disks that I needed (or wanted) after all this time.

07-03-2007, 09:50 PM	#4
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	File formats are only part of the problem. Disk and OS formats are also involved. I just came across a box of old Apple ][ disks in the basement from the early 1980s. Setting aside that the machine itself has been out of production for over 20 years, even the few surviving 5.25" floppy drives cannot read the disk format without special programs (if there are even such things anymore for Apple disks.) Plus even if I had the ability to read the disks would the data still be there or would they be like the old cassette music tapes from that era and and just hiss at me? Thankfully (for me) there was nothing on the disks that I needed (or wanted) after all this time.