I have Mac files dating back to those created in 1985 on my first
Mac, a 512, and have have been retaining the important ones ever since.
Yes, changes in storage technology have meant that I have
periodically had to re record material onto new media, mainly from
floppy disk to CD, and now to DVD.
I am also aware of the often limited life of the stored files, so
have a program of re-copying anything stored on a medium older than
five years. I always burn optical files at the slowest of the
burner's burn rates. I suspect this is the reason why none of my 5
year + optically stored files has so far become unreadable. I also
make off-site copies.
However, I have found it critically important to keep a careful
record of the file types that I am storing., I ensure that, as I re-
copy files after 5 years, I convert files from old or obsolete
applications to files that current applications can read and open.
Examples are early PageMaker and Multiplan files. These are now
InDesign and symbolic-link files. I have similarly converted all of
my old M$ Word documents to rich-text documents.
To date, my backup collection consists of around 450 CDs and DVDs
My current big concern is in what format to store my photo files. I
currently store them as uncompressed TIFF files, a format that has
been with us for a long time. Can anyone suggest a better format?
On 08/01/2010, at 5:23 PM, Graeme Winters wrote:
My thanks to Peter and James for their comments
I for one was not aware that CDs had such limits.
I agree that paper will be among the range of ways in which my
records will be stored..
The assistance and information available through this forum just
reinforces my decision to go Apple
Your assistance is greatly appreciated
Graeme
On 08/01/2010, at 8:33 AM, Peter Hinchliffe wrote:
Regards,
Ray Forma
Tel & Fax +61 (0)8 9335 6568
Mob +61 (0) 428 596938
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