vinceJan 3, 2023

PSA: take some time in 2023 to back up your/your family's CD-Rs (and other recordable media) full of memories you threw into storage 10+ years ago; there's a decent chance they've started to rot!

the tenuously thin layer of dyes/adhesives holding the data *will* break down over time, rapidly so if their environment is uncontrolled, the surface was previously nicked/contaminated, or they were cheap ones to begin with

Show threadvinceJan 3, 2023

thanks to error correction, and with the help of free, modern file forensics tools (e.g. PhotoRec/TestDisk) even damaged disks may have recoverable contents. use your OS or a disk imaging tool to save a raw ISO/"master" image ASAP, which you can later mount (or carve) for the files within

cloud storage and USB drives are cheap today (especially in comparison to the size of CDs and JPEGs from the 2000s), and what price would you wish you could pay to get the data back once it's truly lost?

Show threadRobin FRANÇOIS 💿Jan 6, 2023
@0x56 You might want to have a look at the Aaru open source tool for making those images.
Show threadvinceJan 6, 2023
@r2gf thanks, @kirb mentioned this as well... i started looking at redump/DiscImageCreator for inspiration the other day, but Aaru seems to have a much broader vision of support. admittedly i'm still early in researching many aspects of preservation, but discoverability of the tools is definitely a limiting factor in learning more
Show threadRobin FRANÇOIS 💿Jan 6, 2023
@0x56 @kirb If you have any questions on Aaru, I'm happy to help.
Show threadvince
@r2gf @kirb <3 thank you :)
Jan 6, 2023 at 9:07pmMastodon for iOS