Mar

9

The Oldest File In My Computer

Filed Under General | 5 Comments

This is a photo from the American sitcom “Mr. Belvedere”. This is the oldest file in my computer, having been here since October 22, 1997. I think the 2nd oldest was a half naked photo of Abby Viduya, but it’s since been lost. It was in my very first computer, a 2nd hand 486 handed down to me by my brother. That computer had a 500MB hard drive which I used to create my first website, online as early as August of 1997. Whenever I got a new computer, I transferred files from the old one to the new one and so here that file still is. But I’ve lost so much. Copies of my first website with many journal entries with graphics I created along with it are now gone.

I’ve gotten new computers when old ones get so damaged, or obsolete. I try to save as much as I can, saving what I can on CDs, specially photographs I’ve taken with my digital camera. I’ve completely transitioned from film to digital because I believed no matter how old these pictures become, they still retain pristine colors and quality. All I need to do is have them printed again.

But I have lost many of these pictures when some of these CDs have become unreadable. Hard Drives fail, CDs fail… and with me accumulating megabyte upon megabyte of photos and videos, I’ve become concerned just how I’m going to preserve them all, specially on gadgets that have so short lifetimes. Is there anything I can put these files on and just forget about them, for years and years even, and just get back to them when I need them? Or would I have to keep on backing them up and backing them up every couple of years on new drives and new CDs?

A solution I came up with is to store them online. I’ve stored some of my San Pablo City videos on archive.org because I know they’ll be relatively safe over there. I’ve uploaded many photographs in a variety of online storage sites. It’s still not completely fool proof because their own computers could so easily fail, but at least I know they’d take better care of their machines than I would have.

Comments

5 Responses to “The Oldest File In My Computer”

  1. Jonas Diego on March 10th, 2007 12:49 pm

    Hingi sana ako ng pic ni Abby…

  2. Nash on March 10th, 2007 4:28 pm

    i didn’t even know mr. belvedere is dead….sad….

  3. Jaime on March 11th, 2007 12:21 am

    Yan ba yung pic ni Abby na galing sa akin? Pahingi rin ako, wala akong backup nyan! =)

  4. Gerry Alanguilan on March 11th, 2007 12:27 am

    ha! ha! OO nga, sayo nga galing, Jaime. May kasama pa yung Rosanna Roces. Wala na e. Pero sige maghahanap ako. :D

  5. Charles on March 16th, 2007 5:01 pm

    That time is almost upon us (well technically it’s already here…). Flash (as in flash-drive) technology is one of the most stable storage devices–I can drop it and the files inside are still intact, it doesn’t need electricity, etc. (Just make sure that when you do transfer the files to check them if they’re functional… the most I’ve witnessed is that there was an error in the transfer but that only happened with an unreliable brand.)

    Unfortunately, it’s going to be some time (a few years) before affordable flash drives with storage space as huge as a hard drive becomes available.