Opening Windows: Remote Imaging as a Preservation Tool for Legacy Computers
Eléonore Bernard Robin François Tom Ensom Tony Kranz
The aim of this collaboration was to create a backup or safety copy of the media artwork "Three Windows - Hommage à Robert Lax" by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel. This involved creating a disc image of the two SCSI hard drives installed in a Celsius Siemens 400 computer. To complement the in-house skills, the media conservation department of the Kunsthaus Zürich called upon the expertise of Tom Ensom and Robin François to benefit from their experience in disk imaging, legacy computing and Linux applications. After testing a combination of approaches and tools to image the drives, we used the Aaru Remote tool to remotely image the computer over a network connection. After backing up the hard drives, the original setup was tested and the computer was found to be functional. For the first time in 20 years this original hardware could be documented and preparations made for ensuring the longevity of the artwork. Through this interdisciplinary collaboration, we have demonstrated the use of remote disk imaging, an approach that will have wider applications in digital preservation — particularly where physical access to storage media is difficult or obsolete interfaces are present.
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