Questions tagged [storage]
For questions on information storage on retrocomputing platforms.
12
questions
31
votes
2
answers
37k
views
GameBoy Color games do not save any more
I have a Nintendo GameBoy Color with some games that support saving your game status and also have a real-time clock, like Pokémon Red and Pokémon Silver.
But recently the game does not save any more,...
- 1,145
26
votes
3
answers
4k
views
When did 5.25″ floppies exceed the capacity of 8″?
When 5.25″ floppies were introduced, in the mid-to-late seventies, they would have had less capacity than the older 8″ because, well, less area on which to store data.
On the other hand, being cheaper ...
- 49.6k
16
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Was photographic film ever used for digital data storage?
I was thinking about how Williams Tubes worked and how one could hypothetically "snapshot" (quite literally!) the state of a computer's memory by simply taking a photograph of the phosphor end of a ...
- 493
14
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Magnetic tapes as a random access medium?
A two-part question:
How widespread in legacy systems was the practice of using magnetic tapes as a genuinely random access medium at the OS level by pre-formatting them in a way before the first use,...
- 16.3k
-1
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How long can a HD floppy disk hold 2.88MB before erasing itself?
From Wikipedia - Floppy_disk:
to format or write to this high-coercivity media, the high-density drive switched its heads into a mode using a stronger magnetic field. When these stronger fields ...
- 1,729
4
votes
1
answer
244
views
What information could be recovered from visualized magnetic information?
I was wondering how the data on a floppy disk physically looks like. With data stored on a magnetic disk obviously that isn't visible. The Wikipedia article on floppy disks however shows a beautiful ...
- 1,321
10
votes
6
answers
9k
views
Cannot boot from a Compact Flash card
I am trying to fix up an old work computer I have from the early to mid 90's.
Everything works fine, but the hard drive makes a horrible clicking noise when it loads anything, so I decided to ...
- 201
10
votes
1
answer
842
views
What is the history of data compression tools on personal computers?
On UNIX, the progression of the most widespread data compression programs was as follows:
(AFAIR: Pre System V) compact (suffix .C), dynamic Huffman coding
(AFAIR: introduced in System V) pack (...
- 16.3k
9
votes
1
answer
223
views
What is the effect of direct exposure of the magnetic disk of a floppy to ultraviolet (UV) light?
I was thinking of the mold issue of floppies and UV light (UV-C) came to mind. As ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation and floppies use a magnetic disk for storage and I vaguely ...
- 1,321
1
vote
4
answers
438
views
Is it possible to read floppy disks at non-standard rotation speeds (RPM)?
According to this article 3.5-inch floppies rotate 300-600 times per minute (RPM). It is possible to overclock the RPM and will that result in higher transfer speeds? Or is it possible to read a disk ...
- 1,321
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Which MS-/PC-DOS version was the first to allow multiple partitions to be used?
For IBM PC-DOS/Microsoft MS-DOS, which version was the first version to actually allow using more than one partition for data storage? How about using multiple primary partitions vs one primary plus ...
- 5,026
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
DD vs HD vs ED floppy disks: lifespan/writecycle difference? Other differences?
DD, HD and ED floppy disks have individual materials to match their densities.
But is density their only difference?
Are there any differences regarding:
Maximum allowable rotation speed?
Rewrite ...
- 1,729