Digital Archaeology: The Urgent Quest to Save History from Dying Floppy Disks
Cambridge University Library's Future Nostalgia project is racing against time to extract priceless data from decaying floppy disks, including Stephen Hawking's lectures and personal files, before magnetic degradation erases them forever. Archivists confront obsolete hardware and vanishing expertise to prevent a 'digital dark age' where decades of cultural and scientific heritage could vanish. This effort underscores the fragility of early digital storage and its critical lessons for modern data preservation.