title: Practical Floppy Disk Recovery Study
creators: Dirk von Suchodoletz Richard Schneider Euan Cochrance David Schmidt
abstract: This paper provides a practical example of digital archeology and forensics to recover data from floppy disks originally used by CTOS, now an obsolete computer operating system. The various floppy disks were created during the period between the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s containing different types of text, data and binary files. This paper presents practical steps from two different approaches, the tools and workflows involved which can help archivists and digital preservation practitioners recover data from outdated systems and media. While the floppy disk data recovery was a full success, issues remain in filetype detection and interpretation of non-ASCII data files of unknown or unsupported types.
keywords: ischool toronto canada digital archeology floppy disks data recovery