Cambridge University launches project to rescue data trapped on old floppy disks

A smiling woman with her arms folded sits at a table scattered with floppy disks. .

On October 9, Cambridge University Library opened its doors to anyone with an old floppy disk and a question: What’s on here? The public “Copy that Floppy” session marked the launch of Future Nostalgia, a year-long project dedicated to rescuing data from obsolete magnetic media before time and oxide decay make it impossible.

The idea of a modern conservation lab helping people read their ancient WordPerfect documents or lost BASIC code might seem quaint or cute, but the initiative is rooted in real urgency. The library holds more than 150 floppy disks across its collections, including items from the Stephen Hawking archive, early research drafts, personal files, and software written for now-defunct machines.