Some observations about data and the storage thereof

I recently acquired something I’ve needed for a really long time: an external hard disc.

My computing power has been rather woeful as of late due to a lack of funds. One of the biggest problems has been a lack of storage capacity. 

Getting my mitts on an external hard disc has been a godsend. I have about 23 years of data. Over the years I have used floppy discs, Bernoulli discs, Zip discs, CDs, DVDs, thumb drives, and a variety of camera storage cards. Years back I transferred all the stuff I had on floppy discs onto zip discs. I kept the floppies as a backup. (I never could transfer any of the stuff I had on Bernoulli over. No longer had a drive, didn’t know anyone else that did.) Then I transferred all the stuff on Zip discs over to CDs. Kept the Zips as a backup. With each transfer, data was lost as sections of the discs were no longer accessible. 

Now that I am transferring a huge stack of CDs as well as a decent sized stack of DVDs, not to mention thumb drives and a bunch of camera storage cards onto one hard disc, I am losing even more data. Even CDs just a few years old, stored very carefully, have data that is on damaged sections of the discs. 

So over the years, by drip and by drab stuff has been lost, just due to the degeneration of storage mediums.

If you have data you value – photos of your kids, grandkids, parents, pets, trips, music, projects, etc., etc. – make sure one copy is not all you have. Back up and back up and back up and back up. For the cost, for the amount of room it takes up, relying on just one copy of irreplaceable info, is not worth the risk.

But another insidious loss of stuff occurs due to the fact that so much of what I have is no longer accessible due to software incompatibility. Transferring from Mac to PC, or from Mac to PC, or even in some cases from Mac to PC to Mac, has caused headaches. Getting files UnStuffed and UnCompacted when they’re 20 years old is often a nuisance. I have loads of files in FreeHand3 format. Illustrator refuses to open them. That really breaks my heart. I have a loads of Fontographer files which FontLabStudio won’t open. I need to get their FogLamp software for that to happen. I have stuff in CorelDraw or QuarkXpress which I don’t currently have access to. And even if I get some of these files open, I will quite likely not have the required fonts because they were done on a work computer fifteen years ago.

Computers are great and all, and I am in love with what I can all do with them. But there are aspects to them that are beyond frustrating. Data loss and software incompatibility being chief amongst them.

But I am glad to be able to get years of photos and music and creations together in one place. Sorting it all (I often have several backups, so getting it all untangled is quite a chore) is laborious. But rewarding.

But once I get this all done, once I have everything squared away, I will be acquiring another external hard disc and backing it up. And if I have any sense I may just look into online storage as well. A few options to be on the safe side. 

And then I am going to finally ditch the floppies and the zips. But I’ll keep the CDs and DVDs – just to be on the safe side.