Generally, the backups you would create with PAF are not for long-term use, but until a few more have been made. Floppies need to be reformated occasionally to lay down a new magnetic pattern that is more reliable. Even with that, they may eventually fail. CDs are said to have a life- time of about 10 years, but not the way I see many folks handle them. Every media has problems. With care, proper cleaning of heads and such, most of the drives and media will last quite a while. If you do not rewrite the data to a floppy on occasions, it will ultimately fail. Not necessarily because it is bad, but because the magnetic markers slowly decay unless reset. Yes, they are considered to be probably the least reliable, but still work great for a lot of folks that take care of them. Your warning should be noted for all media. Bill > This is all good but, I've said this many times here, if at all possible use > CDs or something other than floppies for backups. If you don't have a CD > burner you can back up to one of the available free web pages. I have more > than 1000 floppies dating back to the late 1980s. About one in four of these > are no longer readable. I've had 3 zip drives that have failed so these are > no longer usable and 2 tape backup drives. I still have about 20 tapes, (at > $20.00 each), but can't find a tape drive that can read them. I've had 4 or > more hard drive failures where some data was lost even though I've always > had 2 hard drives in my computer. Right now CDs seem to be the best media > available but the way technology is advancing even CDs may be obsolete a few > years down the road. If you must back up to floppies make several sets so > your data is at least semi-safe and keep your data on more than one > computer. > > Regards, Bill > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Gary Templeman" <gtempleman1@comcast.net> > To: <PAF-5-USERS-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2005 1:51 PM > Subject: Re: [PAF-5] ?moving PAF to new computer > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Dolly Ziegler" <dsz@bcpl.net> > >> > >> He has a zip feature on the old one, but even with that cannot get all > >> our > >> PAF on one floppy, so he's going to break PAF down into (four?) files. > >> > >> Any advice, please? Thanks, Dolly in Maryland > >> > > > > The backup file that PAF creates is a ZIP file. When that file is too long > > for one floppy, PAF will automatically span over however many floppies are > > needed. Or let PAF create the backup to the hard drive and then burn that > > file to a CD. There is no need to break down your master PAF file into > > smaller files for backup purposes. > > > > Make sure you are NOT using a separate utility (WinZip, etc) to create > > your > > PAF backups, but let the PAF program do it for you. I would only use > > WinZip > > for things like zipping a GEDCOM or other files prior to emailing, zipping > > and unzipping other archives, etc. Let PAF handle the backup and restore > > functions internally. > > > > Gary Templeman > > > > > > ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List ==== > > FreeBMD - Free Access to England and Wales Civil Registration Index > > Volunteer as a Transcriber Today! > > http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ > > > > > > > > ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List ==== > RootsWeb > http://www.rootsweb.com/ > -- Dr. William A. Davis, Director of VT Antenna Lab The Bradley Dept of Elec & Comp Engr, Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061-0111 [(540)231-6307, 231-3362FAX] http://antenna.ece.vt.edu