Data Archiving
We archive floppy discs from old PCs and Macs. 5.25" (5 1/4 in) floppy discs and 3.5" (3 1/2 in) discs data can be converted to a modern readable file type ranging from text documents and midi sequence files. We can read audio files and samples from Classic Mac (pre-USB) internal hard drives, Iomega Zip and Jaz and Imation Superdisk.
As with any type of magnetic tape, computer disks are subject to deterioration over time. If discs have been stored far away form speakers or CRT TVs there is a pretty good chance they are still readable. However, the clock is ticking on the machines that can read them.
Vint Cerf, the "father of the internet" recently told American Association for the Advancement of Science:
Old formats of documents that we've created or presentations may not be readable by the latest version of the software because backwards compatibility is not always guaranteed. And so what can happen over time is that even if we accumulate vast archives of digital content, we may not actually know what it is."To prevent losing your files, it is necessary to archive your data to current and more resilient media before the data on magnetic and magneto-optical disks become unreadable. Deep Signal Studios can archive data from the following types of disks:
- Iomega Jaz Disk
- Iomega Zip Disk (100MB and 250MB)
- Imation SuperDisk
- 3.5" Floppy Disk (3½")
- 5.25" Floppy Disk (5¼")
- SCSI and Firewire hard drives
- DDS-1, DDS-2, DDS-3, DDS-4, DAT 72 and DAT 320
- SyQuest 44MB, 88MB EZ135MB and 270MB disks
- DVD-RAM