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I have friends who work in the IT section for an under-resourced cultural institute focused on the preservation and recording of disappearing cultures and ethni
by jwfxpr 9y ago
I have friends who work in the IT section for an under-resourced cultural institute focused on the preservation and recording of disappearing cultures and ethnic groups, including the preservation of speech and utterances in languages that now have no living native speakers. They discovered recently, to their alarm, that the only surviving copies of some recordings were now on old 3½ and 5¼ inch floppies that had somehow been stored without accurate cataloguing. They are struggling to find equipment that can 1) read the discs, 2) interface with the disc drives, 3) tell them what is actually on each disc and what file formats are in use (they have good guesses, but no certainty) and 4) find software that will be compatible with those formats.
They have neither the skills nor budget to do in-house nor outsourced forensics for this. At this point they don't even know what exactly might be lost to humanity's knowledge, and the descendents of these people, forever.
- figgis 9y agoWould something like https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/490099/Bytecc-Internal-Floppy-Drive-with-FlashCard/ https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/490099/Bytecc-Interna... work?
- voltagex_ 9y agoYes, with a perfect floppy disk. There aren't any perfect floppy disks left. You need a kryoflux or similar.
- Tempest1981 9y agoFloppy + SD card reader -- looks handy. But still has an IDE connector. Recent motherboards only have SATA. The review here says you can't access the floppy via USB, fwiw: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820192022 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682019... Maybe something like this: (USB floppy) https://www.amazon.com/External-Floppy-Portable-Windows-Required/dp/B00RXEWOAA https://www.amazon.com/External-Floppy-Portable-Windows-Requ...
- voltagex_ 9y agoPlease! Put them in touch wih the Internet Archive. The equipment you're looking for is called the Kryoflux - https://www.kryoflux.com/ https://www.kryoflux.com/
- textfiles 9y agoHi, Jason Scott of the Internet Archive. Let's talk. jscott@archive.org.
- jwfxpr 9y agoSo, I probably shouldn't have been surprised, considering it's HN, but the number of people who reached out to me on this was surprising and touching. I think I've responded to everyone directly, my apologies if I missed you. I'm glad to report that, since last I'd spoken to them about the problem, they've figured out what to do and consider the matter solved. The material is recovered, recatalogued, and in good order. Thanks again everyone for the concern, interest, and offers! I know where to come if something like this comes up again!