Ghoti Ichthus
Genesis 18:32, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Acts 5:29
Library is Rescuing Historical Treasures Trapped on Old Floppy Disks from the ‘Digital Dark Ages’
By Andy CorbleyOct 16, 2025
"Cambridge University archivists are leading an important project to extract and conserve valuable information from floppy disks before they become unusable.
The initiative began when the archive received a box of 5.25-inch floppy disks from a DOS-formatted computer that belonged to none other than physicist Steven Hawking, who was able to use early computers despite his disability from ALS.
The challenges a group of archivists encountered when they attempted to read the disks helped them realize how vulnerable this funny, briefly adopted technology which predate compact disks is to the ravages of time, and how a clock was ticking to get important information off them before they became unusable.
It spawned a project, aptly named in our current pop-culture environment: “Future Nostalgia.”
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Library is Rescuing Historical Treasures Trapped on Old Floppy Disks from the ‘Digital Dark Ages’
Iron oxide on the surface of the plastic may corrode material away, or it may lose its magnetism, preventing it from begin read at all.
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