During my PhD ('88 to 92/3) I had 3 boxes of 3.5" micros (the 1.8MB HD versions) in disc boxes with my thesis on them. One was the working copy which got backed up to the travelling set in my bag. The third set was at home and came in once a week to be backed up (no computer at home).
So if I was in transit between home and work and they both burned down or there was a big earthquake (this was NZ AKA The Shaky Isles) I would still have a copy of my thesis, even if I lacked a machine to put it into . . . If while on my bike I encountered the semi-trailer of fate my work was there for posterity. It wouldn't have survived a direct asteroid hit, but deep southern NZ should have been okay-ish in nuclear exchange (until the nuclear winter hit). Well the govt kept telling us to plan for emergencies.
Mind you in my honours year I properly ejected an 800Kb micro, put it in my labcoat pocket, went and demonstrated a lab and it would not read when I put it back in. I put it down to my animal magnetism.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
