This is a question for those of you who have been on the IT block for a long time…
I’ve got a stand alone system running CP/M as the platform for Balcones’ The Boss Financial Accounting System (c)1981.
Well, as you’d expect, the computer has no modem, no ethernet, no external hookups of any kind except video, parrallel, and serial. It has, remarkably, a 3.5″ floppy disk drive.
My company seems to have a great deal of very valuable financial data on this system, but absolutely no idea how to get it off into a newer system. They’re very concerned that the 20 year old computer is on its way out and there’s a near panic.
There seems to be very little in the way of information about this topic online, so I’m coming to the best and the brightest for help. What I did find though is that CP/M, rather narrow mindedly imho, is such a secure system that there is seemingly no way to remove data from it.
So, my question for you folks is this: how can I get the financial data off the system and onto a newer system that can be backed up and isn’t 19.5 years past warrantee?
It’s been suggested that we could physically remove the hard drive and install it into a newer system and hope that Windows will recognize the drive and be able to read from it. But because of the import of the data I’m hesitant to flip the switch of a computer that’s been powered for so long.
Any ideas? 1000 points offered…
Thanks in advance!
Jonathan