Remember floppy disks?

I was going through 20 years of computer-room accumulations this weekend, and came across boxes of 'em. 

I dug up vacation photos backed up on a couple of 1.4 megabyte floppies, wedding pix on a single disk. Those were the days of my first digital camera, taking snapshots at 320 x 240 (and it had a preview LCD!) Today, it would take three floppies to hold a single image from a mid-range digital SLR. Sometimes I can't fit all the photos I take at a wedding on a single CD.

Amazingly, of all the disks I popped into my husband's PC (mine doesn't even have a 3.5-in drive anymore), only two couldn't be read. Not bad for 10+ years stored in, um, less than ideal conditions.

That did get me thinking, though, about the march of technology and how to prepare for future advancements that will render current media obsolete. Because I also came across a bunch of 5.25-inch floppies, and none of our active PCs will read them. We could have tried resurrecting an ancient 8088 in storage, but I decided to just cut 'em up and let 'em go.

I'm expecting DVDs and hard drives to last for awhile. But the weekend's activities underscored the need to ensure I don't have sole backup of precious files on media that moves into has-been realm while I'm not paying attention.

Although on the brighter side, at least I did make backups.

Another important point: As I'm creating all those backups, I need to be mindful of the fact that someday I'll have to dispose of that media. Hopefully, next time won't involve numerous hours with scissors.