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My dad's PhD thesis is stored on a magnetic tape formatted for a PDP-11. He'd like to copy it off, but it's difficult to find a computer that can read it! Back

My dad's PhD thesis is stored on a magnetic tape formatted for a PDP-11. He'd like to copy it off, but it's difficult to find a computer that can read it! Back in 2006 we went from Geneva to Lausanne to visit Musée Bolo, but their PDP-11 had a problem with its Winchester drive (hard disk) and wouldn't boot. After a few hours, we gave up. Please get in touch if you have the tools - I know he'd like his digital copy back! Even more modern formats are difficult to copy forwards. I'm currently tidying out my old computer collection, copying off data from SCSI disks, 5.25" floppies, DD floppies, HD floppies, and CDs. My USB floppy drive can't read DD floppies. The SCSI path requires copying to a PowerBook G3, removing the internal hard drive, putting it into a USB-PATA controller, and copying it to my laptop. I'll need to do the same for all the 2GB JAZ cartridges. I don't even have a ZIP disc reader, so I gave those two discs away to another collector so he can read them for me. The 5.25" floppies are the hardest - they don't mount even on old Macs, so I'll need to figure out how to set up ADTPro to copy them over serial from an Apple IIgs. If you're in the area and want some old hardware/software/magazines/user manuals, please let me know! https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/99223h/peters_den_geneva_switzerland/ https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/99223h/peters... The lesson? If you want to keep the data, also keep the computer that can read it. And make backups.

Aaargh20318 8y ago
> The lesson? If you want to keep the data, also keep the computer that can read it. And make backups. Or just copy the data over the moment you get a new computer, instead of waiting for several decades. As long as you keep moving the data from generation N to generation N+1, there's no problem.
- dghughes 8y ago
  Not quite. But possible. I have two 1TB external hard drives. The data was added over a few years. But now to copy 1TB over USB 2.0 is beyond painful. Fortunately I can just disassemble the drives and connect them directly. But that's if I have an old system with IDE controllers. If I can find an IDE to USB converter I'd be back to square one (unless it is USB3). And I don't know if there is such a thing as an IDE to SATA converter.
  - ihattendorf 8y ago
    You're looking at 9 hours or so per TB over USB 2.0 (~30-40MB/s typically). That doesn't seem beyond painful to me, just run it overnight and you're done in 2 days.
    - dghughes 8y ago
      That's by doing the math real life isn't so kind.
    - supertrope 8y ago
      Speed is a feature. USB 2.0 storage is only ever so slightly cheaper but will cost hours of your life. I don't bother buying USB 2.0 storage anymore. I observed typical speeds of 25-35MB/sec depending on the motherboard. Some of my older thumb drives clock in at 4MB/sec. My Internet connection both download and upload is faster than that.
oftenwrong 8y ago
Alternatively, print the data with a laser printer on acid-free paper and encase it in epoxy resin: http://carlos.bueno.org/2010/09/paper-internet.html http://carlos.bueno.org/2010/09/paper-internet.html
- vorpalhex 8y ago
  The poor man's laser etched silicon?
- tantalor 8y ago
  Missing one more criteria, 4. Be recoverable How exactly do you extract the information after you drown it in resin?
  - gammatrigono 8y ago
    You read it?
  - etatoby 8y ago
    If you read the article and look at the pictures, you will notice the resin does not touch the paper stack to be conserved. So when you are ready to recover it, you can just break the resin shell to get at the paper stack inside.
    - tantalor 8y ago
      > just break Elaborate?
      - etatoby 8y ago
        Sledgehammer? https://open.spotify.com/track/2aDbkEEcAwh1upaMngsvnF https://open.spotify.com/track/2aDbkEEcAwh1upaMngsvnF
Kagerjay 8y ago
I went to CERN in Geneva last year, I was informed they still use tape technology to store data. Its works, and their datasets are very large. http://giving.web.cern.ch/lhc-tapes http://giving.web.cern.ch/lhc-tapes
paulie_a 8y ago
I used to have the model file for the Titanic directly from one of the animators for the movie saved on a zip disk. The click of death made that file forever lost.
zaarn 8y ago
The general advice at places like /r/datahoarder is to copy all data to a new medium every 10 years to "update" the storage interfaces and standards of the data.

Aaargh20318 8y ago

> The lesson? If you want to keep the data, also keep the computer that can read it. And make backups. Or just copy the data over the moment you get a new computer, instead of waiting for several decades. As long as you keep moving the data from generation N to generation N+1, there's no problem.

dghughes 8y ago
Not quite. But possible. I have two 1TB external hard drives. The data was added over a few years. But now to copy 1TB over USB 2.0 is beyond painful. Fortunately I can just disassemble the drives and connect them directly. But that's if I have an old system with IDE controllers. If I can find an IDE to USB converter I'd be back to square one (unless it is USB3). And I don't know if there is such a thing as an IDE to SATA converter.
- ihattendorf 8y ago
  You're looking at 9 hours or so per TB over USB 2.0 (~30-40MB/s typically). That doesn't seem beyond painful to me, just run it overnight and you're done in 2 days.
  - dghughes 8y ago
    That's by doing the math real life isn't so kind.
  - supertrope 8y ago
    Speed is a feature. USB 2.0 storage is only ever so slightly cheaper but will cost hours of your life. I don't bother buying USB 2.0 storage anymore. I observed typical speeds of 25-35MB/sec depending on the motherboard. Some of my older thumb drives clock in at 4MB/sec. My Internet connection both download and upload is faster than that.

oftenwrong 8y ago

Alternatively, print the data with a laser printer on acid-free paper and encase it in epoxy resin: http://carlos.bueno.org/2010/09/paper-internet.html http://carlos.bueno.org/2010/09/paper-internet.html

vorpalhex 8y ago
The poor man's laser etched silicon?
tantalor 8y ago
Missing one more criteria, 4. Be recoverable How exactly do you extract the information after you drown it in resin?
- gammatrigono 8y ago
  You read it?
- etatoby 8y ago
  If you read the article and look at the pictures, you will notice the resin does not touch the paper stack to be conserved. So when you are ready to recover it, you can just break the resin shell to get at the paper stack inside.
  - tantalor 8y ago
    > just break Elaborate?
    - etatoby 8y ago
      Sledgehammer? https://open.spotify.com/track/2aDbkEEcAwh1upaMngsvnF https://open.spotify.com/track/2aDbkEEcAwh1upaMngsvnF

Kagerjay 8y ago

I went to CERN in Geneva last year, I was informed they still use tape technology to store data. Its works, and their datasets are very large. http://giving.web.cern.ch/lhc-tapes http://giving.web.cern.ch/lhc-tapes

paulie_a 8y ago

I used to have the model file for the Titanic directly from one of the animators for the movie saved on a zip disk. The click of death made that file forever lost.

zaarn 8y ago

The general advice at places like /r/datahoarder is to copy all data to a new medium every 10 years to "update" the storage interfaces and standards of the data.