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Housecleaning, and many GB of lost data
Jun. 29th, 2009 09:11 amI've been going through and just throwing onto the "freebie" pile a whole lot of CDs and DVDs that I've burned over the years, sometimes pulling the data onto a hard drive first.
I'm being amazed at the amount of data that's unreadable from both DVDs and CDs. Most of these CDs have sat in a binder or spindle and look pristine; no scratches or dirt or fingerprints. Yet they're unreadable, or mostly so. Not all, or probably even most, but a lot more than I like.
I'm feeling better and better about my decision to get rid of CD-shaped media and move to hard drives. I don't doubt that sometime down the road I'll transition from the hard drives to something else, but for now ISTM that if it's worth keeping, it's worth 30 cents worth of hard drive space to store it in.
Of course, I've also come to the conclusion that a lot of stuff that I kept, there was no point in keeping. No matter how interesting a documentary is (and a LOT of my viewing is documentaries), the odds of me watching it again are low.
I'll be setting up a freebie box/table/whatever at berzerker, and probably another one at Windycon if I make that this year. Lots of CDs (some may even be readable!), along with computer equipment. Not crap, I threw the crap out a long time ago, but I don't really need three spare floppy drives, especially since I don't think I have a single floppy disk left in the house. At some point I'll probably even toss the VCR into the pile.
I'm being amazed at the amount of data that's unreadable from both DVDs and CDs. Most of these CDs have sat in a binder or spindle and look pristine; no scratches or dirt or fingerprints. Yet they're unreadable, or mostly so. Not all, or probably even most, but a lot more than I like.
I'm feeling better and better about my decision to get rid of CD-shaped media and move to hard drives. I don't doubt that sometime down the road I'll transition from the hard drives to something else, but for now ISTM that if it's worth keeping, it's worth 30 cents worth of hard drive space to store it in.
Of course, I've also come to the conclusion that a lot of stuff that I kept, there was no point in keeping. No matter how interesting a documentary is (and a LOT of my viewing is documentaries), the odds of me watching it again are low.
I'll be setting up a freebie box/table/whatever at berzerker, and probably another one at Windycon if I make that this year. Lots of CDs (some may even be readable!), along with computer equipment. Not crap, I threw the crap out a long time ago, but I don't really need three spare floppy drives, especially since I don't think I have a single floppy disk left in the house. At some point I'll probably even toss the VCR into the pile.
