A Guide to Imaging Obscure Floppy Disk Formats

Memory institutions are grappling with the challenges posed by digital carriers in their collections. While solutions for more recent carriers like hard drives, optical discs, and flash storage are readily available, the landscape becomes trickier when dealing with older formats such as floppy disks. It is becoming increasingly difficult to source the hardware, such as 5.25”floppy drives. There are many boards that can read flux streams, including the KryoFlux, and the Award-winning Archivist’s Guide to KryoFlux can help to get started. But KryoFlux is somewhat limited in the disk formats it can interpret and might be too expensive for smaller institutions. We came together as practitioners because we encountered disk formats that required additional efforts to read and extract files. We explored hardware such as Greaseweazle and using FluxEngine software to read less common disk formats. Sharing the knowledge we have gained, this tutorial and workshop present an opportunity for participants to delve into these formats, examining them from both hardware and formatting perspectives.

The session will start with a tutorial designed to showcase various options and tools (FluxEngine, GreaseWeazle), demonstrating how to make aging equipment compatible with contemporary machines. At the end of the tutorial, participants should have the knowledge to build their own forensic workstation for 5.25”and 3.5”floppy disks.

Commencing with case studies, the workshop in the second half of the session will unravel the complexities of dealing with obscure formats and share valuable lessons learned. Participants will be equipped with practical tips and tricks for identification and handling, including utilizing Hex Editors and using tools for specific obscure disk formats (such as WANG). The aim is to empower participants with the skills and knowledge needed to navigate the challenges associated with older formats.