Digital Preservation

Recovering and Converting Data from Manuscripts Collection Discs

Discs entering the National Library's Manuscripts collection may be selected and copied for preservation by Manuscripts staff. Discs that are difficult to access may be passed to Digital Preservation for data recovery and conversion to accessible formats.

Most material for recovery and conversion is on 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch floppy discs. The equipment available for accessing the material includes PCs with 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch floppy disc drives, CD and DVD drives, and a Macintosh computer with a 3.5 inch floppy disc drive and CD drive. As well as common desktop applications, available software includes a specialised recovery and conversion application, InterMedia, which allows data to be read from a range of disc formats and provides conversion paths for a range of obsolete file formats.

Preservation transfer of data from discs

  1. For each consignment received, a new directory is created on a secure drive and is named according to the Manuscript identifier. Subdirectories are created for each disc of the consignment to be copied, and an “Original” and “Converted” directory is created within each subdirectory.
  2. Floppy discs are made write-protected to prevent alteration during processing.
  3. Discs are scanned for viruses using up-to-date virus detection software. Only virus-free publications are processed further.
  4. Discs are assessed for format (PC versus Macintosh) by attempting to read the directory in a PC floppy drive and comparing the result to Table 1.
  5. Using the correct drive identified from the table, or, if necessary, the “Read Sector” module of the specialised recovery software, disc contents are copied into the corresponding “Original” directory on the destination drive.
  6. For PC files, the copies are compared to the original discs using file comparison software to ensure that they are identical at the bit level.
  7. All remaining conversion steps are carried out on the copies on the secure drive. Original discs are secured.

Table 1

Result
Probable Format
Action
"Disk not formatted" message AND disc is labelled Apple or Macintosh
Macintosh
Read in Macintosh drive.
(Note: some early 400 K and 800 K disks may not be supported.)
"Disk not formatted" message AND disc is labelled IBM or PC format
Macintosh (reformatted)
Read in Macintosh drive.
"Disk not formatted" messsage.
Label not specific
Unknown
(possibly Macintosh)
Try in Macintosh drive.

If unsuccessful, use specialised recovery software Disk Recogniser module to try to identify format and/or Read Sector to copy data from unknown format disk.

Directory displays, but includes files such as:
Resource.frk
Finder.dat
PC,
but has been used in a Macintosh.
Files on the disk are likely to be Macintosh files.
Read in Macintosh drive
Directory appears normal
PC
Read in PC drive

Conversion to accessible formats

  1. “Original” copies of the files are further duplicated into the “Converted” directory. The copies of the original files in the “Original” directory are always retained, and conversions are undertaken using the working copies in the “Converted” directory.
  2. File types are identified by inspection, by matching file extensions (PC) or file creator types (Macintosh) or by inspecting file code.
  3. For each file, a suitable conversion method and format for access may be selected from the tables shown below (Tables 2 – 5), which summarise the current conversion paths. File types outside this range need to be investigated and converted on an individual basis.
  4. For each disc, a 'read me' text file is created in the disc subdirectory. Details of the original discs are recorded, as well as system requirements of original and converted files and how to use them. Preservation actions including the copying and detailed conversion steps are also recorded.
  5. When complete, the set of directories for the consignment are transferred to Manuscripts.
  6. Documentation for the original discs, the copying and conversion steps and system requirements for access are also transferred to Manuscripts, along with the original discs.

Current conversion paths are:

Table 2: Text Documents

Original files Convert to Via Method Open Converted files with
Microsoft Word document (.doc) Rich Text Format (.rtf) 1. Open in Word
2. Save As .rtf
Microsoft Word,
Rich Text viewer
Rich Text Format (.rtf) Not converted Microsoft Word (check only) Microsoft Word,
Rich Text viewer
Other known, available word processing format (e.g. AppleWorks) Rich Text Format (.rtf) 1. Open in appropriate software.
2. Save As .rtf
Microsoft Word,
Rich Text viewer
Other unknown or unavailable word processing format Rich Text Format (.rtf) Use specialised recovery and conversion software (e.g. InterMedia) to:
- recognise and convert
or
- assist manual conversion
Microsoft Word,
Rich Text viewer
Plain Text document (.txt) Not converted WordPad or NotePad
(check only)
Text viewer (e.g. WordPad or NotePad)
Other text type document:
-Nisus writer
-Delimited text (tab, comma)
-database exports
Plain text (.txt) 1. Open in WordPad
2. Save As text (.txt)
Word Pad or NotePad

Delimited text may be imported into Microsoft Excel

Table 3: Spreadsheets

Original files Convert to Via Method Open Converted files with
Excel documents (.xls) with calculations Excel 2000 workbook 1. Open in Excel 2000
2. Save As Excel 2000
3. Add version note in 'read me' file
Current version of Excel
Excel macros (.xlm) Excel 2000 workbook 1. Open in Excel 2000
2. Save As Excel 2000
3. Add version note in 'read me' file
Current version of Excel

Macros may not operate, but are documented

Data exchange format (.dif)
Comma separated values (.csv)
Tab separated text (.txt)
Retain in original format Ensure extension is correct May be imported into Excel

Table 4: Images

Original files Convert to Via Method Open Converted files with
Common formats
- TIFF (.tif)
- JPEG (.jpg)
- Windows bitmap (.bmp)
- Graphic interchange format (.gif)
- Portable network graphic (.png)
Retain in original format Ensure file extension is correct Should be viewable in basic Windows environment:
- Microsoft Photo Editor
- Windows Imaging
- Internet browser (.jpg, .gif)
PCX (.pcx) Convert to TIFF (.tif) 1. Open in Microsoft Photo Editor or Adobe Photoshop
2. Save As TIFF, retain resolution, use RGB space.
Should be viewable in basic Windows environment, as above.
MacPaint image (.mac) Convert to TIFF (.tif) 1. Open in QuickTime 5 Picture Viewer.
2. Save As TIFF, or Copy/Paste into other imaging program and Save As TIFF
Should be viewable in basic Windows environment, as above.
Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf) 1. Ensure fonts available
2. Distill to PDF using Adobe Acrobat Distiller
Adobe Acrobat Reader
TIFF (.tif) 1. Open EPS or PDF in Adobe Photoshop.
2. Save As TIFF.
Should be viewable in basic Windows environment, as above.
Other vector formats
- Windows metafile (.wmf)
- Enhanced metafile (.emf)
- CAD Drawing exchange file (.dxf)
Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf) 1. Open using Adobe Illustrator. Ensure fonts available.
2. Save As PDF
Adobe Acrobat Reader
TIFF (.tif) 1. Open using Adobe Illustrator. Ensure fonts available.
2. Save As TIFF
Should be viewable in basic Windows environment, as above.

Table 5: Specialised Software

Original files Convert to Via Method Open Converted files with
Finale Music Notation File (.mus) Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf) 1. Open using Finale NotePad. Font substitution available.
2. Export to PostScript.
3. Distill to PDF using Adobe Acrobat Distiller.
Adobe Acrobat Reader
TIFF (.tif) 4. Convert PDF (from above) to TIFF using Adobe Photoshop Should be viewable in basic Windows environment, as above.

Further work

Further development of this procedure will include investigating options for converting documents to more sustainable formats for longer-term access, such as the normalisation to XML method developed by the National Archives of Australia.

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