In my software engineering course, back in the grad school, the SABRE airline reservation system was a case study. Supposed to be a text book example of how to implement and mange the life cycle of complex software systems. I still have the book Software Engineering by Shooman.
That would have been 17 Moore's Law generations ago! In human terms, it like looking at the farming methods or weaving techniques or marine navigation procedures or military maneuvers of 1592!
Back in the day I've dealt with AMADEUS, SABRE and GALILEO. This news sure brings back memories!
On magnetic storage I can change controller boards, even swap out the platters in a clean environment into another drive with working heads. For a few hundred to some thousands, your poor choice of having no backup media can be resolved. On SSD I can desolder the chips, dump them and then tell you there's nothing recoverable. For a few hundred to some thousands, your poor choice of having no backup media can be resolved.
As long as they are TSOP and not BGA maybe so. If they are put in the correct order.
Building translators is good clean fun. -- T. Cheatham