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Re: [LUG] Making sure your memories are safe

 

Simon Robert wrote:
> Alan wrote:
>> Robin Cornelius wrote:
>>   
>>> On 4/2/07, Alan <ap@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>     
>>>>> AFAICT, there is no format or archived media that cannot be read today,
>>>>> even ones that are already 50 years old. There will always be
>>>>> archivists and historians who will seek to use the old formats and that
>>>>> can keep the codec alive. As long as one person is interested in the
>>>>> format, the source code remains available and it can be updated to
>>>>> whatever is around at the time.
>>>>>
>>>>>         
>>>> so can you help me get some photos off some 5.25" floppies I have stored
>>>> away?
>>>>
>>>>       
>>> Do you have a 5.25" drive? i assume not as you are asking. I do have
>>> one somewhere here
>>>     
>> I do. But don't have a controller I can plug into a modern computer though.
>>
>>
>>   
>>>> The format may be OK, but the media may not. And I'm old enough to have
>>>> some 8" floppies with interesting stuff on them.
>>>>
>>>>       
>>> My BBC micro games still run of the 5.25" disk, as long as you didn't
>>> bend them in half they were not that bad.
>>>
>>> Might have somthing to do with the data density is so low you can
>>> almost see the magnetic bits with the naked eye (joking)
>>>
>>>
>>>     
>> And you're right, jokes aside. And if your eyesight isn't all that good, 
>> then you could at least feel the bumps.
>>
>> The point was that you really couldn't expect to be able to have the 
>> mechanical technology to recover all that old stuff stored away. The 
>> software, formats, and codecs aren't the issue. You still need a slot to 
>> plug the stuff into.
>>
>> Anyone got any classics on Beta they'd like to play some rainy evening?
>>
>>
>>   
> better get those VHS home movies stored onto your quantum bubble drive 
> pretty quick, cos VHS will be as dead as beta soon. OK it probably will 
> be always possible to transfer stuff, but it's difficult and costly. My 
> mother paid around £35 to have her super8 wedding transferred to video. 
> I have loads of colour slides I'd like digitised, but high street 
> photographers charge £20 a  box. 

You can get scanners which take slides- they aren't expensive either.

> Now I guess mother will have to fork 
> out another £35 to go from vhs to *.avi.

Buy a video capture card. You can get USB ones really cheap now.

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