Ever since I blew up my PC last spring I wanted to make paper copies of the important files. I started last week and so far have gone thru 3 reams of paper and 1 black printer cartridge. I'm making the assumption of no Power. I hope I'm wrong but I bet I'm not.Is there anyone else doing the same thing? I'm also getting enough Storm Proof to water proof the really important stuff and the rest goes into Ziplock bags and then into steel ammuinition cans.

-- nine (nine_fingers@hotmail.com), August 03, 1999

Answers

Why are they important if the whole world fails? I'm making SOME hard copies. I have so much stuff. Other than that, I will have everything backed up in an organized way on disk. If the computers ever come back up, I'll have the files. If not, then not.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 03, 1999.

Why not only make paper copies of the most important files, and put the rest on a ZIP drive, or something similar?

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), August 03, 1999.

I think nine is talking about text files of info about farming, edible wild plants, hunting, tanning, soapmaking, candlemaking etc. Info that is not needed now, but will needed if there is no power.

One of the things that makes men different from animals is that we don't have to keep all of our knowledge in our heads.

I am printing out lots of this kind of info.

-- biker (y2kbiker@worldnet.att.net), August 03, 1999.

I too am making hard copies of useful (survival) info. I used some 3 ring notebooks that I had for some old software (threw away the manual paper as I no longer have the software). I separated the info I print into categories ie; Water, Heat/Light, Sanitation, Food Storage, Recipes (Y2K style), Health, Garden, and will add more as I get more info, or even just go through the stuff I saved on my floppies and print it out.

I have told relatives about the books, where to find them if something happens to me, so they will have important info to keep going. Trying to think of everything that might be helpful.

-- Sammie Davis (sammie0X@hotmail.com), August 04, 1999.

If you have or have access to a CD-R recorder, burn ALL of your important data and as many hard-to-find or registered-shareware programs as you can to CD. CDs are cheap as hell (even in small quantities) hold up a LOT better than Zip disks, et al, and are not affected nearly as much by humidity/moisture (Drown a Zip disk once and try to read it. G'wan, try it. Be sure to have a second Zip drive handy though. Surface tension of water and tiny moving parts with microscopic gaps are a bad combination.) or magnetic fields.

If there's any sort of nuclear explosion within a few hundred miles of you, your Zips would magically go blank as it doesn't take much along the lines of EMP to flash-erase one. I erased one by accident while testing a capacitor-discharge circuit, simply from the EMP the discharge coil made even though I was several feet away from the disk that got zapped. But a CD will hold up through heavy EMP exposure.

Just keep the CD in a decent jewel case (sleeves are crap) and keep them from gettign too hot, and they'll be fine. (CDs tend to like -20 to +100 deg. F, so store accordingly.)

Print out only what you're going to truly need, as paper is not the most durable medium under harsh conditions. Stuff of potentially lifesaving nature, such as first-aid info, recipes for on-the-run cooking, whatever, would be best printed, laminated, and bound in a good 3-ring.

OddOne, who backs up his entire development computer on 5 CDs once a month, and can recover from devastating HD crashes on a day...

-- OddOne (mocklamer_1999@yahoo.com), August 04, 1999.

I've printed out reams of information including news reports from those who mock the potential severity of Y2K.

When the JIT distribution system chokes and the shortages increase, paper will become more valuable.

Presently I'm printing on scrap paper that a Xerox technician uses to test new photoreceptor belts.

The test copies are printed on only one side, so I use the other.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), August 08, 1999.

Have you tried water on your printout? Or a couple of years of humidity? Or a couple of years of sunlight? Ink-jet prints are NOT durable. If you think you'll need durable hard-copy, and you can't scrounge access to a laser printer any other way, it may be worth lining up all the printing you and any friends have to do, then hiring one for a week. Or hiring the use of one at a local school. Or anything.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), August 09, 1999.