Eight ZIP disks down...
Feb. 5th, 2005 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gerisullivan...78 to go.
I haven't had a ZIP drive of my own since moving a little over a year ago. That didn't stop me from moving all of my ZIP disks, of course. I might need that data some time, don'cha know? As if having it is the same as being able to access and use it....
Last summer, one of the publishers advertising in the the Worldcon Souvenir Book sent the files to us on a ZIP disk. I borrowed a USB ZIP drive after confirming it worked with my current Mac. The idea was that I'd not only be able to get the ad files I needed, but that I'd also use the opportunity to retrieve all that data lurking on my ZIP disks. I can put it all on CDs, thus ensuring that they, too, will soon be as obsolete as ZIP disks are. Remember SyQuest 44s? They were ubiquitous. the data storage and transfer coin of the graphic realm for years. Well, two or three, at least. Until they weren't. ZIP disks held twice as much, cost less than a quarter that of a SyQuest cartridge, and were sturdier and more compatible to boot. Win, win.
That story has been on a repeating loop for years now, and it truly is a marvel, yes, it is. Hey, some of the files I'm copying are even in formats I can still open and use. I'll be surprised if I ever do, of course. Well, except maybe for the 25 meg tiff of Bridalveil Falls that I'm copying now. Hmm. There's probably some other interesting art lurking in these archives.
Much as I wonder just why it is I'm doing this, it's a help on the clean, flat surface front. Not the ZIP disks themselves, they were in my office storage area, out of sight. And I'll most likely return them there, to sit next to all those 3.5" floppies, and...hmm...did I move the 5.25" floppies? Or save any of the 8" CPT disks? I think they went the way of the SyQuests. Before I started writing this update, I was making great progress on yet another flat surface here in my office while the ZIP drive was busy copying files.
It's getting downright interesting watching the file names fly by as I write. I couldn't resist looking at "langford.tiff" -- a black and white from 1995, scanned for the Minicon 33 program book, most likely. Either that, or an issue of Idea. The couple thousand art files currently being copied include the pictures from the BaggieCon Program Book in 1995. That was the big one, "BaggieCon 8: The Fanzine," I think.
Yes, yes; I know. Hey,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fredcritter, I just poked my way through the basics of ImageEvent. It looks like there's a lot to like about the service; have you run into any "gotchas" yet? I also took a quicker look at fotki, which lsanderson and dlacey both use. Comments, folks? Recommendations? Do any of these services have a reputation for raising their prices or adding new fees? (They're certainly good at making their pricing structure hard to find, if tonight's forays are any indication.)
Okay, all of that websurfing really took my focus off the file transfer job at hand. I'm going back to clearing flat surfaces.
Closing ZIP count: 21 disks copied, 65 to go.
I haven't had a ZIP drive of my own since moving a little over a year ago. That didn't stop me from moving all of my ZIP disks, of course. I might need that data some time, don'cha know? As if having it is the same as being able to access and use it....
Last summer, one of the publishers advertising in the the Worldcon Souvenir Book sent the files to us on a ZIP disk. I borrowed a USB ZIP drive after confirming it worked with my current Mac. The idea was that I'd not only be able to get the ad files I needed, but that I'd also use the opportunity to retrieve all that data lurking on my ZIP disks. I can put it all on CDs, thus ensuring that they, too, will soon be as obsolete as ZIP disks are. Remember SyQuest 44s? They were ubiquitous. the data storage and transfer coin of the graphic realm for years. Well, two or three, at least. Until they weren't. ZIP disks held twice as much, cost less than a quarter that of a SyQuest cartridge, and were sturdier and more compatible to boot. Win, win.
That story has been on a repeating loop for years now, and it truly is a marvel, yes, it is. Hey, some of the files I'm copying are even in formats I can still open and use. I'll be surprised if I ever do, of course. Well, except maybe for the 25 meg tiff of Bridalveil Falls that I'm copying now. Hmm. There's probably some other interesting art lurking in these archives.
Much as I wonder just why it is I'm doing this, it's a help on the clean, flat surface front. Not the ZIP disks themselves, they were in my office storage area, out of sight. And I'll most likely return them there, to sit next to all those 3.5" floppies, and...hmm...did I move the 5.25" floppies? Or save any of the 8" CPT disks? I think they went the way of the SyQuests. Before I started writing this update, I was making great progress on yet another flat surface here in my office while the ZIP drive was busy copying files.
It's getting downright interesting watching the file names fly by as I write. I couldn't resist looking at "langford.tiff" -- a black and white from 1995, scanned for the Minicon 33 program book, most likely. Either that, or an issue of Idea. The couple thousand art files currently being copied include the pictures from the BaggieCon Program Book in 1995. That was the big one, "BaggieCon 8: The Fanzine," I think.
Yes, yes; I know. Hey,
fredcritter, I just poked my way through the basics of ImageEvent. It looks like there's a lot to like about the service; have you run into any "gotchas" yet? I also took a quicker look at fotki, which lsanderson and dlacey both use. Comments, folks? Recommendations? Do any of these services have a reputation for raising their prices or adding new fees? (They're certainly good at making their pricing structure hard to find, if tonight's forays are any indication.)Okay, all of that websurfing really took my focus off the file transfer job at hand. I'm going back to clearing flat surfaces.
Closing ZIP count: 21 disks copied, 65 to go.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-06 04:40 am (UTC)B
no subject
Date: 2005-02-06 07:50 am (UTC)It's also what I get for being sloppy, based on hearing early horror stories of backups that wouldn't restore. Using those 5-meg Bernoulli's, IIRC. So instead of of using nice, clean backup software (I even bought some once; still haven't installed it), I copy everything. And then I copy it again. The bigger the project, the more copies made, especially during major crunch times. Sometimes I clean up those duplicates after the fact, more often I move onto the next project. I was pretty good about archiving finished projects for awhile, that was in addition to the in-progress backups. From time to time, I also copy everything that's still on this drive or that. Etc. Data recovered from disk failures gets its own set up backup copies.
Multiply that by the size of graphics files, and shudder. I do. My only saving grace is that I'm not deep into AV- or CAD-based stuff.
The amazing part is that I've usually found the files I was looking for on those rare occasions when I've needed to go digging through the data.
Still, whimper. Envy.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-06 08:16 am (UTC)I used to carry around everything on my computer, all the time. I got out of the habit when I travelled more in Third-World countries; I feared that some customs official would take my laptop away and copy all my files. Now I only have with me things I have published and what I think I might need. Everything else stays at home.
B