discussion The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks

[LaughingCrow]

A digital dark age? From lectures by Stephen Hawking to the letters of British politician Neil Kinnock – it's a race against time to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251009-rescuing-knowledge-trapped-on-old-floppy-disks

 

[moocow]

I tried that with a USB floppy drive but that damn thing just short circuit the USB port. Decent old hardware are hard to find and even if you find them, you have to get them to interface correctly.

 

[LaughingCrow]

I tried that with a USB floppy drive but that damn thing just short circuit the USB port. Decent old hardware are hard to find and even if you find them, you have to get them to interface correctly.

Years ago I came across some old 3.5 floppies that I forgot about. I got a USB 3.5 drive; most were fully readable. But there really wasn't anything I hadn't already backed up before. Still have the USB 3.5 drive.

I have some old USB memory sticks & 2 very small SSDs I've been meaning to check out and discard.

 

[Shadowmeph]

This is kind of like rescuing books then digitizing them