Moaning about nothing...

[DodgyAgent]

I can feel a boom in second hand PCs coming on

[zeitghost]

I transferred a shedload of CP/M files about 2 years ago.

It was ever so much fun.

Then I wondered why the feck I'd bothered.

[wobbegong]

This isn't news, it's a common problem faced by every network/system admin' when replacing backup technologies. You've either got to convert your old data formats, or make provision for its' future recall by retaining a means to read it.

[TheFaQQer]

Why not just convert the sodding files to a Text File or XML. I mean what happens when you stop being able to emulate windows 3.1.

You'll need to emulate Vista or XP, and then emulate 3.1 on that.

[Ardesco]

Ah government IT.....

[Sockpuppet]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6265976.stm

Digital File Timebomb!!!!

If you stored something on a floppy disc just three or four years ago, you'd have a hard time finding a modern computer capable of opening it.

Thats why you take the info off the floppy disk onto something that you can upgrade easily!

"The National Archives, which holds 900 years of written material, has more than 580 terabytes of data - the equivalent of 580,000 encyclopaedias - in older file formats that are no longer commercially available."

The day when the computer stops being able to open a text file in standard ASCII is a long, long, long way off. I mean we can still play LPs from how long ago?

"The root cause of the problem is the range of propriatorial file formats which proliferated during the early digital revolution.

Technology companies, such as Microsoft, used file formats which were not only incompatible with pieces of software from rival firms, but also between different iterations of the same program. "

So what they are really saying it. We ****ed up and let some consultant tell us that microsfot rocked and he didnt know what he was talking about. Common sense did not prevail.

"The agreement between the National Archives and Microsoft centres on the use of virtualisation.

The archive will be able to read older file formats in the format they were originally saved by running emulated versions of the older Windows operating systems on modern PCs. "

Why not just convert the sodding files to a Text File or XML. I mean what happens when you stop being able to emulate windows 3.1.