Recovering data from failing floppy disks

Abstract

As floppy disks and other similar media age, they may lose data due to a reduction in the retention of electromagnetic fields over time, mainly due to environmental factors. However, the coding techniques used to write data can be exploited along with the fault mechanisms themselves to successfully read data from failing floppy disks. This paper discusses the problem of recovering data from failing floppy disks and describes a practical example involving a case of substantial legal value. © 2008 International Federation for Information Processing.