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I have a habit which is part of my “refugee mentality” and in English is called “pack rat syndrome” in the sense I try to save everything. My first computer is an Apple II in 1979. Since then I have been faithfully making copies of all the personal file documents I accumulated. However, despite my effort, these files are disappearing gradually year by year. Let me explain. From my first Apple II I graduated to Apple III, the first Macintosh all the way though to Macbook and OS v.10. In 1997 I switched to a PC for business use and currently uses the Windows XP operating system. Thus I have accumulated all kinds of files in different formats many of which my current system can no longer read. The other day, I wanted to open a WORD document recorded in 1994 on the Macintosh version of the Microsoft WORD. But the current WORD software can no longer open it.  This is only 15 years ago!. I am sure if I locate an old MAC computer, or pay someone, I can retrieve this file, but how much trouble this will be, never mind my even older files back in the 1980s. Thus, defacto these old file have disappeared or no longer accessible. I wonder how common is this problem?

Note added 7/26/09

From comments by readers, here is the lesson I learned. If you want to really preserve all your old file, then remember these two rules:

1. Storage medium changes with time from 5 in floppy disks to 3 in disks to zip disks to CDs to DVDs. You must constantly upgrade your storage medium for otherwise you won't have the hardware to read them anymore.

2. File formats changes with operating system. Fortunately, software for converting one format to other exists on the WWW. Thus, once the files are in your computer memory, you can always update them. But do it.