Legacy Files??????????

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I was just cleaning out some old floppy's and this thought crossed my mind. What about all the files that are stored as backups, on tape and disks, that use a 2 digit date? Seems to me they would have to be expanded to 4 digits in order for them to be used. Hope they were remediated too!

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), August 12, 1999

Answers

GOOD Question. good question!!!

I hope remediators have considered this...

-- Super (Slfsl@yahoo.com), August 12, 1999.


In some cases, you might get away with not converting the tapes, although I would not recommend this action. If a company does NOT convert the tapes, they should keep the old record layouts so that they can at least read the tapes into a format.

For some applications, it must be advised to convert the old data into new formats. The first thing that comes to mind is patient information/history. It is possible that patient history may not be able to be recovered fast enough to make a decision fast enough for treatment. There are all sorts of possible legalities of not being able to produce patients with their history.

-- (cannot-say@this.time), August 12, 1999.


Yes, yes, one of those dirty little secrets.

It's called information Armageddon.

-- Jim the Window Washer (Rational@man.com), August 12, 1999.


My work place has lots of old Pentiums and such that still run on Windows 3.1. The boss said that the computers are all compliant, however can they read files with a date of 00? Is this a big problem? Where can I find information on old WIN311 Systems and problems associated. The Microsoft site says that WIN311 is compliant. Is this true? Are we ok if the computer clocks (&BIOS) is ok?

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/year2k/product/user_view67784EN.htm

-- I'm (Worried@Concern.com), August 12, 1999.


What an idiot post. Any old backup can be assumed to be 2 digit and easily translated/transposed to the correct century. Only a computer idiot would think legacy data is a problem. BUT, if I want to be afraid I would say that this old data will corrupt my computer and so I would have to shut down my computers and go dig a toilet in my back yard as everything in the world will shut down from the joanne/dianne/roseanne/bethanne/carolanne effect.

-- FLAME ARRESTOR (FLAMEARRESTOR@noburn.com), August 12, 1999.


Flame Away,

A programming technique called "windowing" is widely used in Y2K remediation in order to avoid or postpone the problems of the prevalence of two digits dates, not only in backups, but throughout active files. This technique has various drawbacks, but it is widely viewed as a workable intermediate "solution".

In this technique, some two digit number is picked as a boundary, for example, 50. Then, any two digit year greater than that boundary, is presumed to be preceded by 19, and any two digit year equal to or less than that boundary is presumed to be preceded by 20. A crucial part of this "windowing" is that all programs that reference a given set of data use the same two digit boundary.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), August 12, 1999.


Dear ARRESTOR; Before you reach for the water,,,,,,, the twos do have trouble with the fours in some cases. Do some research. Windowing may be the answer as long as you do not send any backed up info to someone who is not using windowing?????? I think the problem is with expanding the date fields. By the way, I like your handle even if you are an asshole!

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), August 12, 1999.

Dear arrestor;

When the system is remediated to EXPECT a record of 48 bytes and is RECOVERED with a record of 46 bytes, either the system goes BOOM (a GOOD thing) or it does not (a BAD thing). The system MUST be ready to handle BOTH record layouts (FILLER PIC X(40) DATE-REC PIC X(8) REM-DAT-REC REDEFINES DATE-REC MONTH PIC X(2) DAY PIC X(2) YEAR PIC X (4)

is NOT the same as (FILLER PIC X(40) DATE-REC PIC X(6) EXP-DATE-REC REDEFINES DATE-REC MONTH PIX X(2) DAY PIC X(2) YEAR PIC X(2))

Read the second file with the first file layout and HOPEFULLY it goes VBOOMV. Alternatively your record count goes down, or you hic end-of- rec early and it goes boom.

Chuck

who needed to exercise that piece of brain again

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), August 13, 1999.


As is clear from some of my previous posts, I think year-field expansion truly bites, but I don't see the above as much of a problem, since it is possible to write very simple little bridge programs. Of course I agree with some of the above comments, that an organization will be screwed if they forget about this situation and do nothing.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), August 13, 1999.

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