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As part of the [Future Nostalgia project](https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/future-nostalgia), we are putting together a guide on preserving floppy disks. The guide is currently in the reviewing stage. The draft version of the guide can be accessed [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZfPaXMOXCphfnDKKRoImzccHtY2M2hBZLI5mP65RNpk/edit?usp=sharing). You will be able to leave any comments or suggestions.
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Web Publication Build Process
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The publication process is controlled by the `Makefile`, which contains all the technical details.
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Started by downloading the source Google Document as a DOCX file. Then:
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- It downloads the source Google Document as a DOCX (because this brings embedded media with it)
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- It uses `pandoc` to convert that to Markdown + media files.
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- It patches in a YAML frontmatter block (`index_head.md`) to set up the document.
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- It uses `pandoc` to generate an ePub version.
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- It uses [MystMD](https://mystmd.org/guide/installing) to generate web and PDF versions.
Note didn't use commonmark_x because it added anchors to the headings which MyST does not support.
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- Conversion didn't use commonmark_x because it added anchors to the headings which MyST does not support.
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- PDF generation only works if you remove styling inside hyperlinks (underlines) as this confuses Typst.
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- Some things, like big tables, might not convert well. These are best modified at source (GDoc).
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- The ePub generation process can pick up some metadata from the source document.
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- When developing locally, you can use `make from-gdoc serve` to rebuild and then look at the results.
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Then had to tweak:
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- Move some information like title and authors into structured frontmatter.
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- Remove styling inside hyperlinks (underlines) as this confuses Typst.
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- To stop the big table of controllers getting lost off the end of the page in the PDF, I had to break it up into a sequence of tables. Might work better as headings and figures.
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ePub generation:
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```
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pandoc index.md -o exports/imaging-floppy-disks.epub --metadata title="A Guide To Imaging Obscure Floppy Disk Formats"
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```
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But you don't need the metadata field there if you add it to the frontmatter.
After the end of the Future Nostalgia project, the Digital Preservation Coalition will endeavour to ensure this publication remains available and facilitate it's ongoing maintenance and development.
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:::{aside}
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<imgsrc="./cover.png"/>
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:::
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This guide is written for practitioners wanting to image floppy disks with the intention of preserving them for the long-term. This guide will focus on floppies with a Shugart Interface, which are the 8-inch, 5.25-inch, 3.5-inch and 3-inch floppy disks. This guide will only focus on getting material from these disks and will not cover writing disks. Other resources are available for further information on floppy disks, as outlined in Section 5.
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The guide will assume some basic knowledge on some terms, which include digital preservation and assume that you are familiar with tools such as write blockers and feel confident configuring different pieces of software, using different operating systems and the command line. Further resources on digital preservation and other basics can be found in Section 5. This guide will also not be a step-by-step demonstration of all the different tools and floppy controllers; this decision was made as the hardware and software around floppy controllers can change quite quickly. but will serve as a basis on how to get started and how to image the floppy disks in the wider sense.
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The first step in setting up your workflow is to identify your floppy disk. There are a number of resources out there to identify the carriers in your collection, including [<u>Know you Digital Storage Media</u>](https://lib.utsa.edu/knowyourmedia/index.html) by UTSA Libraries Special Collections and [<u>The Museum of Obsolete Media</u>](https://obsoletemedia.org/). As a reminder, this guide will only be covering floppy disks with a Shugart interface, there are the 8-inch, 5.25-inch, 3.5-inch and 3-inch floppy disks. There are more types of floppy disks out there, as helpfully highlighted by [<u>the Obsolete Media museum</u>](https://obsoletemedia.org/data/floppy/), but these are not covered in this guide.
*All floppy disks covered in this guide all use the Shugart Interface, from left to right: 3.5-inch floppy disk, 3-inch (Amstrad) floppy disk, 5.25-inch floppy disk and 8-inch floppy disk.*
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-**Operating system or formatting type.** For instance, a disk might be labeled ‘DOS’ to indicate it had been formatted for IBM PC-compatible systems running MS-DOS. Others might carry labels for [<u>Macintosh (HFS)</u>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_File_System_(Apple)), [<u>CP/M</u>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M), or other environments.
*Different types of floppy disks. On the left is a group of 3.5-inch floppies. The two on the left being examples of DD disks, the two on the right HD disks. The picture on the left highlights a wide range of 5.25-inch floppy disks. Including DD and HD disks, all DS. The labels (if present) on these floppy disks are accurate, all disks contain data.*
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