23rd March 2012, 01:47 PM
Dinosaur Wrote:There's a folder on our server labelled 'files rescued from floppies' - when you've finished on here see how many of those you can open useably without taking them to a specialist....and then of course there's the shelf of old tape-drive cassettes, 5" floppies etc etc, all full of inaccessible data from only 15-20 years ago, at least you don't need expensive specialist hardware to get info out of a book....
I got a floppy at home (oo er). Bet you can still get a 5" floppy drive to plug in. There's usually software somewhere that can convert one file into another. Open office for instance. You can plug a record player into a PC so I suspect the same goes for a tape deck.
Bet someone somewhere can even read punch cards!
The key is (will be) keeping up to date. If you change your system to a new format, convert your old files. Simple.
BTW like your new Avatar!