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Fridd yy
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D-Rdiscswereoncea very
popularwaytomakea safe
copyoffiles.They’recheap,
they’reeasytolabel,and
they’reeasytostore– why
notputallyouroldphotosona CD-R,
tuckit away,andthenlookbackonit in
20 years?It’scertainlya lotsmallerthan
a photoalbum.Well,there’sa verygood
reasonnottodothat:CD-Rs(and,by
association,allmannerofrecordable
discs)areextremelyvulnerable.Many,
includingourown
artdepartmenthere
atWindowsHelp&
Advice,havefound
thatolderdiscscan
sufferwhat’s
commonlyreferred
toas‘rot’.It’snotthe
sameprocessas,
say,rottingwood,
butthetermis apt.
Ona CD-R,your
filesarestoredona verythinlayeroffoil
whichsitsonthetoplayerofthedisc
- thesamelayeryou’dgenerallywrite
ontomarkitscontents.Overtime,the
adhesivebetweenthattoplayerand
theplasticsectionofthedisccan
deteriorate,causingthefoiltoseparate
orevenflakeaway,leavingthatdisc
completelyunreadable.Writeable
opticaldiscscanalsosufferif they’re
storedinthewrongenvironment.Long
exposuretodirectsunlight,for
instance,caneffectivelyeraseportions
oftheirstoreddatasincethefoilis
literallymadetobeaffectedUVlight.
Higherqualitydiscsmaylasta little
longer,butwe’redefinitelycomingto
theendoftheCD-Rera.
Sowhatcanyoudo?First,if you’re
stillusingopticaldiscsforbackup,you’ll
needtochangethewayyoulookafter
thosepreciousfiles.Switchtousing
USBstorage,take
advantageof
someformof
onlinestorage,or
preferablyuseboth
toensurethatat
leastonesurvivesin
caseofdisaster.
Second,digout
thoseolddiscsnow
andcopytheir
contentsto
differentstorage.Withanyluckmostof
themwillreadjustfine,butforthose
thatdon’t,allis notlost.It’spossibleto
usethelikesofPhotoRec(seeright)or
thepaid-forIsoBuster(isobuster.com)to
scanevenseeminglyunreadablediscs
andrecoveratleastsomeoftheir
contents– it’sa lastresort,andoften
veryslow,butit couldbelifelineyour
discsneed.Areyourphotoarchivessafe?It couldbetimeto
takea longhardlookat thoseoldbackupdiscs
((ɃɃɃʑʑʑʢʢ\ʝʝȸȸȸɏɏɡ WWɪɪɸɸʘʘʘʖQQɒɒ ɪɪEEEʝXXɢ
1
What is the longest
word you can write
on one row of a
computer keyboard?
A TYPEWRITER
B ESTABLISHMENT
C PARTICIPLE2
What is the
estimated storage
capacity of your brain?
A 3580MB
B 3580GB
C 3580TB3
Before Windows was
Windows, by what
name was it known?
A Desktop Leader
B Interface Manager
C Icon Boss4
The average price per
GB of hard drive
space today is around
3p. What was it in 1980?
A £1,
B £15,
C £150,5
What was the first
webcam designed
to monitor?
A A bank vault
B A sleeping baby
C A coffee pot6
Which of these
has not been the
first name of a
Microsoft CEO?
A Dave
B Bill
C Steve3ʑQɡDɢʃȱɏȾHDʏɨ\ʝʦɠʤʖȷɏVWʋUWɡQʝɦ
7+(6(&ǖǕ'ƹƾ,=
1A 2C 3B 4C 5C 6AAnswersGood backups gone bad
PhotoRec
cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRecLost a file? Got a bad disc? The completely
free PhotoRec can help. We’ll be the first
to admit that it’s not very pretty, and it’s
certainly not the most user-friendly app
given its text-based interface. But when
you’re at your wits’ end, it’s the most
useful program there is. Basically it works
by breaking all the rules: it ignores the
traditional structure of drives and skims
through them bit-by-bit, enabling it to
both find files (and not just photos) which
Windows can’t. It can ignore those
sections of discs (like tired CD-Rs) which
are no longer readable. Don’t worry about
damaging anything, as it only runs in
read-only mode, meaning it can’t
overwrite files; you can even use it to pull
data from old mechanical hard drives,
though how successful you’ll be will really
depend on the quality of the disc rather
than PhotoRec’s own abilities.VISUAL WRECK PhotoRec looks terrible- but it’ll find your lost files
Image credits: Photorec; Twitter; Facebook; Appropriate Reaction by Jes Mugley on Flickr is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence: http://bit.ly/326nlW8 |^ |^ August 2019