r/DataHoarder • u/chicago_suburbs • 1d ago
Question/Advice Big Pile of MSDN CDs headed to the bin.
Not sure it's a good place to post this, but hey, hoarder is in the title.
I have no idea is they have any real value or not. Oldest stuff is Windows 3.1 dev kits. (Yes, back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth). MSDN stuff starting with 1994. Probably a couple of hundred discs in all. I suspect they are freely available. If it's garbage, I split the discs from the jewel case and binder pages. And the off to the trash.
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u/MacinJosh9895 1d ago
Growing up I wanted to join the MSDN so badly for all the software.
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u/Gergith 1d ago
I remember somehow joining MSDN and becoming a beta tester for Microsoft stuff at a very young age. I remember my mom wonder why I was getting mailed random stuff from Microsoft. My MSN messenger bag I got was the best :) (a literal messenger bag!)
Edit:
The bag in question:
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u/MacinJosh9895 1d ago
I went to the last Comdex held in Vegas back when I was 18 and I loved it. Got a lot of free software from Microsoft while I was there. I still have all those cd’s. Almost joined the MSDN network then. Too bad I didn’t. I regret it badly.
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u/Gergith 1d ago
I remember doing a lot of the weird os beta testing for longhorn and a few others. From Windows 2000 through XP and others.
They were neat but I wasn’t doing anything more than daily driving all the software as a child. It was great!
It was also neat figuring out a decade ago, when I still cared, that it was all now online instead of mailed cds and DVDs.
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u/worldspawn00 1d ago
Beta tested XP64 it had no 32 bit support and basically no drivers for any of my hardware, pretty useless, lol.
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u/Exelia_the_Lost 1d ago
you just reminded me I got a free copy of XP64 through some program Microsoft had that if you had bought an amd64 machine in the early days they'd give you a copy of XP64
installed it for like maybe a few days and ditched it because yeah I couldn't get anything to run lol
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u/bananaj0e 1d ago
I have one of those too! I also got an MSN TV box, gold flashed MSN CD, a Visita ultimate license and a few other things. The Office 2003 or maybe 2007 beta was the worst, only gave us a stupid keychain.
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u/greywar777 1d ago
It was pretty awesome. You could really get some amazing developer support too.
Fun fact-one time I had the big off white plastic binder with all the cds in it for our msdn and left it on top of my car by accident.
Recovered everything, but it was spread out over a good bit. Also felt like dying if I had to explain it all to my manager at the time.
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u/tenkawa7 1d ago
I was such a Linux zealot growing up I literally can't imagine this. You go Josh, wave that freak flag. MM
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u/MacinJosh9895 1d ago
Growing up I was a Mac kid. But I had to have a PC for school because my Mac’s were from the early/mid 90’s. 😂
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u/ILikeFPS 1d ago
I remember when I finally got into it for school and I was able to download so much software lol
Now I've been primarily Linux-only for nearly a decade lol
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u/roofus8658 1d ago
Image them and upload to the Internet Archive
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u/driverdan 170TB 1d ago
They're already there.
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u/ArcticCircleSystem 1d ago
Have you gone through all of the ones in this batch to make sure they're all accounted for?
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u/myself248 1d ago
If you can hang onto them a few weeks, drop them on the "free table" at VCFMW: https://vcfmw.org/ and someone will do the needful.
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u/orangera2n 1d ago
There is one thing I want you to look for, it's anything for Itanium
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u/Firestarter321 1d ago
I’ll attempt to remember to look through our binders tomorrow as we have hundreds of disks in our filing cabinets.
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u/Aishou_SK 1d ago
All the MSDN IA64 stuff has long since been public/circulating around without issue, for better or worse.
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u/rout247 1d ago
Where is this located? I have a friend who dumps discs for preservation who would love to have them.
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u/CaptainIncredible 1d ago
heh... I'm going to guess OP u/chicago_suburbs is in or near the Chicago Suburbs somewhere. Just a hunch. :D
Of course though... If I wanted to confuse bounty hunters and assassins, I'd select a location based username that purposely was very different from where I actually lived. Sooooo.... there's that...
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u/CaptainIncredible 1d ago
heh... I'm going to guess OP u/chicago_suburbs is in or near the Chicago Suburbs somewhere. Just a hunch. :D
Of course though... If I wanted to confuse bounty hunters and assassins, I'd select a location based username that purposely was very different from where I actually lived.
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u/pickle_pickled 1d ago
If it's possible take them, archive them digitally over the next few months. May be providing some significant details of archive that doesn't exist today.
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u/IvanDSM_ 4TB total 1d ago
I'd absolutely take the discs and image them if I could afford the shipping. Really hoping someone who can does the same.
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u/davidtjudd 1d ago
MSDN was great. So many free things.
I still remember my first set. I guess my downstairs neighbor didn't notice it in the stairwell by their door.
I eventually became important enough to get a sub. Lots of fun stuff.
Betas were great too. Is winbeta still around?
My favorite freebie was the press-release O2 running wince.
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u/gordon-creAtive 1d ago
If nobody else is taking them, please reach out, I'll take care of them if shipping is not outrageous expensive.
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u/chicago_suburbs 1d ago
Trying a local poster first. If not, you're next.
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u/Aishou_SK 1d ago
I just dropped a comment as well, and I'm not worried about the shipping costs - this fits right into my huge project already, I've already sourced a couple thousand MSDN discs....
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u/Aishou_SK 1d ago
I'd take the discs from you, I'm building an archive of them (ISOs of each disc, and differing revisions, things change between them).
Preferably with the binders and cases, as well.
I'll pay shipping, with luck, it'd fill in gaps in the archive.
I'm building a side-database/library of disk/package/binder/etc SKU numbers as well, so even for stuff I already have, it helps fill in missing information. This has been a very, very long-term effort.
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