Good luck with it, and I'll help if you need it. You may have problems reading the Apple II's disks on a PC, I'm not sure what format those are.
5 Mouth is on my calendar. Tell Lucas to come join us for our DFW Grotto meeting (every 4th wednesday at REI in north Dallas). I don't know how many people will be in my truck and gear, but we'll find him a ride if he wants one. Charles On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 10:13 AM, J. LaRue Thomas<jlrbi...@sonoratx.net> wrote: > Charles, > Thanks for the offer--the disks may be unreadable but it's worth a shot. I > will be at my Mom's where the disks are end of October and will I guess UPS > them home, I don't think I should carry them on the plane. So far the > consensus is to get ahold of a 5 1/4" drive (flea market, eBay) and connect > it to my computer. Since I have an older (10+ years) PC I use for > non-internet work stuff and it has a 3 1/2 floppy drive already, I can > probably get it hooked up to a 5 1/4". > > My father was a brilliant engineer with several patents, including for the > first "electric eye" for automatic adjustment of fstop and time. He was one > of the first to use a desktop computer at work. He convinced Bell & Howell > to order Apple IIs for all engineers and convinced Apple to modify the Apple > IIs slightly for B&H's use. I wish I had known more about computers then and > am hoping the disks from those years will be helpful. > > Thanks again for the offer, Charles--I may still need your equipment but > I'll give the other a try first. Jacqui > > ps. Still on for 5 Mouth? There is a young man in the DFW area who is > relocated from Odessa and best friends with a PBSS dude. He has been to 5 > Mouth, the 1st trip, and may want to join us. I don't have Lucas's contact > info but if you're still coming and you'd still like a rider I can get the > contact info. J. > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Goldsmith" > <wo...@justfamily.org> > To: "J. LaRue Thomas" <jlrbi...@sonoratx.net> > Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 12:23 PM > Subject: Re: [Texascavers] request for computer help > > >> Jacqui, I know I'm not local to you, but I can try to help. Depending >> on how the disks were stored and where, they may be readable and may >> not. >> >> Cool, dry places with no humidity and not near any metallic objects >> are the best way to store them. Being too close to another floppy >> (paper envelopes didn't work too well) can also scramble them. >> >> Either way, I'll do my best to read them and burn to CD. >> >> For long term storage, even CD or DVD is not a good choice, they tend >> to not read well after many years. Its best to test them every few >> years and also keep backups on multiple computers. Its very much a >> pain, but for important data, it's worth it. >> >> Charles >> >> On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 11:53 AM, J. LaRue Thomas<jlrbi...@sonoratx.net> >> wrote: >>> >>> All, >>> This is not caving but you folks are the most likely to have the info I >>> need... >>> >>> My father saved personal history information to the larger-type (5 inch?) >>> floppies. The info does not appear to be anywhere else. He used two >>> computers (1 Apple, 1 PC) but both died many years ago. I do not even >>> know >>> which computer he saved from. >>> >>> Is there anyone out there who can still read large floppies and convert >>> their info to something my family can use? I will be where the disks are >>> in >>> late October. >>> >>> Please respond to me off-list. Thanks, Jacqui >>> >>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com >>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com >>> For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com >>> >>> >> > >
