[PLUG] Reliable long term, off-line storage

[Dick Steffens]

On 08/27/2018 03:41 PM, Jason Barnett wrote:
> Even if the USB standard still exists in some form, it will be the drivers
> that will likely be the biggest problem.

I actually had a similar issue last winter. Our vintage 1987 church 
organ fine wore out. Parts were no longer easily available. We were 
offered a digital organ, vintage 2008. It came with a CD with a program 
to be used to "voice" the organ. That program runs on Windows XP. The 
company is still in operation, but the current software does not 
correctly handle our 2008 model. As it happens, I had a laptop, my old 
Acer Aspire, which I asked questions about on this list a good number of 
years ago, and had run Linux Mint on. It does not support newer OSs, 
being only a 32 bit machine. So, long story short, I still had the 
original restore CD for the machine, and was able to load Win XP, and 
the organ voicing software. The organ technician was able to use it. It 
now resides, locked away, in the church basement, with a large note 
instructing anyone who finds it that they must leave it as is to support 
the organ. We may never need to use it again, but if we do, that is 
likely the only tool available to do the job. Even the organ tech 
doesn't have a copy anymore.

Fun with advancing technology.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens