Using old F.H.CDs on Windows 7

I am unable to play my BMD cds on Windows 7 & have heard others say same, unless one downloads expensive software.

A chap from SussexFHG via their mailing list mentions :

Has anyone tried this & would it work on 'Windows 7 home premium' edition?
Failing that, if I was to buy a portable cd player which would plug into my little XP notebook, would I then be able to again use these cds?

 

Accompanied by said cds?

 

That's by far the best way, Wendy. People can tell you anything, but the proof is in their being able to at least demonstrate what they say. I've had to make double trips on various occasions after being told something would work with my computer and Windows 7 Home Premium only to find at home that such was not the case. If I could easily cart my PC with me I would, and then I'd say "show me".

 

Luckily for me my netbook is about as large as a mousepad.10" x7"
May be lucky, these days everything has a USB port & hooks up to everything else.

 

This is a problem as old as computers and occurs where proprietary software is used to enable access to data files. Working in a professional IT environment, we always included ways of accessing old data when developing replacement systems because the data had a high value to the organisation which owned it.
The situation is different where a company has sold data on CD (using proprietary software for access rather than general utilities (e.g. Adobe Acrobat or web browsers)), especially where the data are now available on-line. It is simply not commercially viable for them to develop new software to run on new operating systems because they would not get their money back.
The solution I have used where I still require the ability to access the CDs is to keep the old computer on which the software will run - obviously easier with a laptop than a desktop machine. For those who have not kept their old machines, the cost of buying a used laptop running an old OS may well be less downloading expensive software as mentioned in the OP (if, indeed, such software exists).

 

My problem is that my notebook does not run C.d.s hence the tought of coupling it to an external etc...I only have a set of BMD cds requiring this so probably won't go to the lengths of buying a used refurbished machine.

Thanks for your reply Gr

 

If a notebook will run the software then using an external CD drive is certainly a viable solution. I've used an external CD drive for that purpose as well as to install software bought on CD on a number of netbooks which do not have an internal drive.

 

Funny old things computers. My wife and I have identical computers sitting side-by-side bought in February this year running Windows 8. We have a series of CDs of transcripts of Nottinghamshire BMDs. They will run on my computer and the viewer will install but they will not run on my wife's identical computer.

All the best,
Malcolm Webb
Lincoln UK

 

I once had a "lively" discussion with Notts FHS at some show or other and they made it clear that they knew that if they were interested in making it easy for customers they would simply provide the data in Adobe Acrobat format. However they were obsessed with the notion that everyone was going to pirate the data and therefore sold it in a user-unfriendly format.

I made it clear that if that was their attitude I wasn't buying anything from them. Unfortunately I'm only one customer.

 

Unfortunately piracy and theft by copying data CDs is a fact of life so I can sympathise with Notts FHS.
When we published data CDs I had a protracted case involving trading standards and eBay when one of our CDs was copied. Several other publishers and a number of other thieves were involved in the end. We succeeded in having several sellers banned by eBay but received no recompense for our lost sales or for the time it took to have action taken against the thieves.
We also discovered a number of cases where people were using our CDs to offer a look-up service (sometimes at a charge and sometimes not). Those cases cost us (a small company) hundreds of pounds, at least, in lost sales.

 

Some people have a vested interest. Others are just consumers.

Think how successful a project like FreeReg would be if Family Histories Societies actually co-operated with the project.

 

sounds like pure sibling/computer rivalry to me

I guess copying of cds is inbuilt in some people, just as with music cds. Tough tho if your Family was of the same area & you buy the discs for that reason then cannot use them. Happily it's only happened with one set of mine the more recent are fine.

 

Opinions obviously differ between Family History Societies but in some cases the priority of the volunteers (without whom the FHS would not exist) is that the FHS (not themselves as individuals) receives income for the results of their efforts (income without which the FHS would not exist).
Personally I would rather purchase data of interest from an FHS (as I have done on many occasions in book, fiche, floppy disk and CD form) than see the FHS fold.
An integral aspect of volunteering is that those who step forward do so to support the organisation involved at least as much as the community in general.

 

I have no problem with anyone protecting their data and supplying it with their own viewer to enable it to be accessed. The BMD data is from Nottinghamshire FHS and the CD's come complete with their own viewer. The problem is obviously with my wife's computer as I can access the disks and install the viewer on my (identical) computer and our laptop.

All the best,
Malcolm Webb
Lincoln UK

 

ah....ethics....a category of thought that no longer seems automatic but needs to be studied/taught. The subject of intellectual property in this computer age is certainly interesting. If I am understanding the above conversation correctly, shouldn't some of this behaviour be automatic? i.e. shouldn't a person know when, or at least question, whether or not to copy or pass on accessed information without permission?

I like the practicality, even if space becomes a challenge, of keeping old equipment. But, unless one has a mechanical genius in the family, (used to be one most wanted a doctor), they can start to pile up---and maybe provide false security? At some point, the media they support will become archaic to the point of not being able to recall, the "old" equipment will "die", and then?....this harbours backs to our discussion of storage media for some of our precious documents.---Yeates

 

I don't like the implication in some of these messages that the only people who object to the way some data is marketed are people who intend to pirate the data.

My only interest is that I have no intention of changing my operating system just to qualify me to give money to the seller. This is very similar to Wendy's quite reasonable expectation that an upgraded operating system should not cause data CDs to stop working.

 

I don't know how obvious it is. If her computer meets the requirements stated by the seller, perhaps the problem is the product not the computer.

 

I certainly didn't mean to imply that. It is the case, though, that some people will copy it - in the same way that some people will play music in their business without a performing rights licence. We don't object to the latter so why object to data publishers trying to protect their work?

But the data CDs have not stopped working. They will still work perfectly. The only change is that the purchaser has decided to replace a computer which will run them with one which won't. It's the same as replacing a Windows PC with a Mac an then complaining that programs written for Windows won't work on it.