Thank you all for the help gentleman!
I like the idea of reforming a group of random samples. It seems that turning on the power of old piece of equipment and let just sit and burn in would help to restore all components.
I have a few old dinosaurs like DOS 3.0 PC, PC /XT and finally a Windows 95 AT. They all boot fine. The components such as Electrolytic capacitors, carbon based resistors, and Epsoms ect have not failed the system.
However in the name of progress, faster CPU speeds, and then don't forget the thrill of getting to tell your next door neighbor that my PC is bigger, faster, more expensive than his unit and just plain the best thing out there.
Of coarse Intel is grinning in the background, fully knowing the next ego trip Microprocessor is all ready to hit the market in a few months. WOW a PC that can do 5 billion calculations per second. This is much faster than my old TI 59 pocket calculator that I used in school. I was so proud of it that I kept it safe in my "pocket protector".
So frankly hardware and software doesn't ever get a chance to fail due to age.
But what about hard drives and solid state mass storage?
How long does a typical hard drive last. The new buzz word today is "Cloud Drive". Okay, but the hard drives on the cloud fail every day, just as our drives fail. This is because the cloud uses the same exact hardware that we do.
I can remember one of the first projects that I constructed at 4 yrs old. It was a Chrystal set that used a Germanium diode, and a wire wound Oatmeal Box. Can our man-made memory and other mass storage compare to the human brain with regard to instant access of data that has been stored more than 5 decades.
Anyway the next question:
How safe is the data on our storage systems? I have heard that with regard to hard drives , the conservative estimate is four years, but no-one knows for sure. Do we phase out our Hard Drives every four years? Do we put them in the same dumpster as the Electrolytic Capacitors?
Best regards,
Sam Coniglio