[Ham-Computers] DON'T trust those CD roms for important storage!

[Philip, KO6BB]

Hi,
Somewhat over a year ago the creator of the very good Shortwave logging 
program called SWLog program got PO'd at the complaints he was receiving and 
dropped support.  About the same time that the German company providing an 
excellent SWL database readable by SWLog quit providing it free to amateurs. 
Then the SWLog program was reintroduced, but with a totally different 
makeup, requiring the download and configuration of a LOT of new files from 
Microsoft etc.

Since I was revamping a lot my computer stuff here, I first backed up all 
the SWLog files and it's logbook containing many years of SWL logs to two CD 
ROMs, then removed the program and files from my computer as I wasn't doing 
a lot of SWLing.

Today I decided to open up the log files with Microsoft Office Access (it 
was supposed to be editable with Access) and see if I could export them to a 
format that I could read in Excel.

Imagine my chagrin when NEITHER CD rom was readable on my computer (they 
were "burnt" on this machine and the same drive).  To the computer both 
disks appeared to be blank, they were supposedly quality products from TDK. 
And yes, in case anyone is wondering, I'm CERTAIN they checked out fine 
right after burning.  I always burn with the little block checked that 
compares the written disk against the original files.

Interestingly enough, the disks containing the scans of all my SWL QSL cards 
are the same brand and are still readable, though all those card scans are 
also on my Internet "Photobucket" site and could have been retrieved if need 
be.

The disks weren't stored in any temperature stress areas as the radio room 
is air conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter, I keep it around 
68-75 degrees when possible.

So, now I'm "logless" as far as SWLing goes, all my beacon and ham logs are 
intact as they always reside on the computer hard drives as well as FLOPPY 
disks. . .

So, the upshot is, don't trust those CD ROMs for important stuff, and if you 
do, check them frequently.  I'm sure that in this instance, I just got a bad 
batch.  But that's small consolation.

73 de Phil,  KO6BB
http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/index.html
http://ko6bb.multiply.com/

DX begins at the noise floor!
RADIOS: Yaesu FT-2000, FT-8800, FT-1802, FT-60.
Merced, Central California, 37.3N 120.48W  CM97sh