KryoFlux is a hardware and software solution for preserving

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

s. It was developed by the Software Preservation Society.

Overview

KryoFlux consists of a small hardware device, which is a software-programmable FDC system that runs on small

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between ...

-based devices that connects to a

floppy disk drive A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

and a host PC over USB, and software for accessing the device. KryoFlux reads "flux transitions" from floppy disks at a very fine resolution. It can also read disks originally written with different bit cell widths and drive speeds, with a normal fixed-speed drive. The software is available for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Mac OS Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the classic Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system ...

and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. The KryoFlux controller plugs into a standard USB port, and allows normal PC floppy disk drives to be plugged into it. Because the device operates on data bits at the lowest possible level with very precise timing resolution, it allows modern PCs to read, decode and write floppy disks that use practically any data format or method of

copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any measure to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on vid ...

to aid in

digital preservation In library science, library and archival science, digital preservation is a formal process to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable in the long term. It involves planning, resource allocation, and appli ...

. It has been tested successfully with many generations of floppy disk drive including 8", 5.25", 3.5" and 3" mechanisms, and dozens of disk formats including numerous schemes originally designed to prevent

software piracy Online piracy or software piracy is the practice of downloading and distributing copyrighted works digitally without permission, such as music, movies or software. History Nathan Fisk traces the origins of modern online piracy back to similar ...

, allowing the preservation (typically to an image file stored on hard disk or other modern media) of programs and data that will inevitably succumb to

data degradation Data degradation is the gradual Data corruption, corruption of Data (computing), computer data due to an accumulation of non-critical failures in a data storage device. It is also referred to as data decay, data rot or bit rot. This results in ...

as the original physical media deteriorates and becomes unreadable over time. The image files produced may be rewritten to fresh disk media or, more commonly, used with software emulations of the original systems. When reading old disks (especially those stored in non-climate controlled environments for long periods) there are a number of problems that can arise, including weakening of the magnetic field storing the data, deterioration of the binder holding the metal particles to the plastic disk surface, friction issues preventing the disk rotating freely in its outer protective sleeve, and issues caused by physical misalignment of the drive that originally wrote the disk or the one being used to read it. Users have detailed various techniques to aid in the recovery of data stored on such marginal disks.

References

External links

* Digital preservation Floppy disk computer storage {{Compu-soft-stub