Reviving ancient code

[phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org]

There were 4 copies of the software and documentation, each one on a 3.5"
floppy disk. Three were completely readable. One was partially readable.

I didn't think of it at the time, but it would have been a good idea  to
put the backups on different kinds of media. However, CDR had not been
invented at the time, and I didn't have tape backup. So I didn't have a
lot of choice. Anyway, if it's feasible, multiple backups are somewhat
better than one backup.

They were stored in a plastic floppy disk container, not sealed, in a
reasonably dry Toronto basement. So nothing special about the storage.

I had a paper listing of the main turbo pascal control program. Initially,
before I found the floppies, I thought they might have to scan and OCR the
listing. Fortunately that was not necessary.

They were very, very, very, happy to get the software, and I didn't charge
them for storage ;).

Peter

> Impressive! were the disks fully restorable, or was some fill-in-the-
> blank work needed? I've never heard of floppies lasting so long.
>
> How were they stored? There may be a lesson in that.
>
>
> (sent from my phone, so please excuse the typos)
>
> On 27-Jun-09, at 4:08 PM, phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
>
>> Back in the early 90's, I worked with ROM staff to refurbish the solar
>> telescope in the McLaughlin Planetarium. (You can still see the shaft
>> poking out of the roof in the south east corner of the building).
>> When the
>> planetarium was closed, the solar telescope was sold and disappeared
>> from
>> view.
>>
>> A week ago I received a query from the Boonshoft Museum of Dayton
>> Ohio.
>> They had purchased the hardware and it had sat around for a long, long
>> time. The hard drive in the original computer was DOA, so they asked
>> if I
>> had the original computer programs. I did, in my basement archives,
>> and
>> sent them off. By my count, the Turbo Pascal code and the 68HC11
>> assembly
>> language sat in my basement on 3.5 inch floppies, for 17 years before
>> someone needed them again.
>>
>> They tell me that the solar telescope is now partially operational and
>> undergoing commissioning.
>>
>> Anyone else have stories of having to retrieve code from a dusty
>> archive?
>> Can you beat the 17 year interval? ;).
>>
>> Peter
>>
>>
>> --
>> Peter Hiscocks
>> Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
>> http://www.syscompdesign.com
>> USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator
>> 647-839-0325
>>
>> --
>> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
>> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
>> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
>


-- 
Peter Hiscocks
Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
http://www.syscompdesign.com
USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator
647-839-0325

--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists