Saving object to file using Serialization in Java -

I have a large amount of data stored in archive .
I want to save this data in a file Is it a good idea to use serialization?
Should I use a custom format to save data or save it as an XML for example?
(The elements present in the archive are sections that are custom. Do I need to apply a method that can serialize objects?)

I will not write a serialized disc in the classroom Once JVM or a library changes, it can be useless. This means that one file created on one system can not work on another!

Instead, I will write a text version of the data. If your collection includes other collections or classes, then I use XML because it handles nesting well if the data is simple, then I will probably write a comma-sep file containing one version number and data with a header line Set descriptions, column names, data lines and one line told to an EOF line.