Interesting that you raise this point, Tim, though I suspect it might have got more response in a conventional forum thread than as a blog entry.

It's an issue that has been well known to those with a professional interest in archiving computer-based information for many years, but is sadly neglected by almost everyone else.

Although relevant, the main issues are not so much with hardware or software availability at some future date, instead they revolve around the longevity of the various storage media. I'm sure many of us have old floppy discs lying around somewhere (I still have a few boxes of eight inch floppies somewhere, not to mention various types of 5.25"), but not everyone realises that magnetic media don't retain data for ever. So although there are people and organisations who conserve old devices that might read them, it may well be too late to recover an error-free version of some data when you realise you need to.

There's a similar problem with optical media such as CD, DVD, etc., especially the writable forms. Again these are likely to deteriorate over time with data loss. Eventually these losses can be so bad that not only will they not read in a normal reader, but even those specialists in data recovery that can do amazing things with failed media will not be able to get anything meaningful off them.

In both these cases, the key to successful archiving is to regularly copy old files to fresh modern media and to ensure that multiple copies are available, preferable stored at different physical locations.

As to the software side, there are potential issues with proprietary file formats for which no available documentation survives the company that created them. However, most of the image formats (e.g. JPEG, GIF, PNG and most forms of raw camera output) are sufficiently well documented that it would be a relatively simple task for a future programmer to code something that would extract the image form a surviving file. Of course, this pre-supposes that the documentation survives, and that may itself be stored on computer media... However in the modern era where most such information is replicated many times across the Internet, and with search engines copying and replicating web pages, we can be fairly confident that most will survive most limited-scale disasters through regular backup, distribution, etc.

<quote>Anyone remember drive B?

Anyone using Windows 3.1?</quote>

Not me, but I do know a number of people who could if they really needed to

Nick

Interesting that you raise this point, Tim, though I suspect it might have got more response in a conventional forum thread than as a blog entry.

 

It's an issue that has been well known to those with a professional interest in archiving computer-based information for many years, but is sadly neglected by almost everyone else.

 

Although relevant, the main issues are not so much with hardware or software availability at some future date, instead they revolve around the longevity of the various storage media. I'm sure many of us have old floppy discs lying around somewhere (I still have a few boxes of eight inch floppies somewhere, not to mention various types of 5.25"), but not everyone realises that magnetic media don't retain data for ever. So although there are people and organisations who conserve old devices that might read them, it may well be too late to recover an error-free version of some data when you realise you need to.

 

There's a similar problem with optical media such as CD, DVD, etc., especially the writable forms. Again these are likely to deteriorate over time with data loss. Eventually these losses can be so bad that not only will they not read in a normal reader, but even those specialists in data recovery that can do amazing things with failed media will not be able to get anything meaningful off them.

 

In both these cases, the key to successful archiving is to regularly copy old files to fresh modern media and to ensure that multiple copies are available, preferable stored at different physical locations.

 

As to the software side, there are potential issues with proprietary file formats for which no available documentation survives the company that created them. However, most of the image formats (e.g. JPEG, GIF, PNG and most forms of raw camera output) are sufficiently well documented that it would be a relatively simple task for a future programmer to code something that would extract the image form a surviving file. Of course, this pre-supposes that the documentation survives, and that may itself be stored on computer media... However in the modern era where most such information is replicated many times across the Internet, and with search engines copying and replicating web pages, we can be fairly confident that most will survive most limited-scale disasters through regular backup, distribution, etc.

 

<quote>Anyone remember drive B?

Anyone using Windows 3.1?</quote>

 

Not me, but I do know a number of people who could if they really needed to

 

Nick

Thanks Nick

Yes I agree that it might have been better posted in an open discussion, however, the picture is just a 60 year old snapshot of my parents. It is a fascinating picture as it's a colour print taken in 1950 at a time when rationing was going on in Britain. My parents were abroad then. It is regrettable that I couldn't post it on the forum, but there is no railway content.

As for longevity, I've seen Victorian prints that were as clear as originally printed. Probably more luck than anything.

Bit of a browser problem today!