[game_preservation] Mold removal from floppy disks

[Henry Lowood]

Devin,

Just circling back to this: We have had occasional issues with mold on 
magnetic media -- not just disks, but tapes as well.  In some cases, we 
were able to rescue the data, in some cases not.   Note that this is 
considered a hazardous area.  Mold can be very nasty.  Thus there are 
specialized mold-treatment or removal companies. This is not my area, 
but probably one of our conservators would know.  If you know enough 
about the specific situation, I could put you in contact with a media 
conservator here -- not that she would take the job, but for advice.  
Let me know off-list.

Henry

On 12/22/2011 7:19 AM, Devin Monnens wrote:

> Has the SPS or any other organizations worked with mold removal from

> magnetic disks? I notice there are several articles (such as a sample

> below) that discuss methods that sound non-destructive to the media

> (but fully destructive against the mold!), but I was curious how

> effective this process is and how stable the media is after the mold

> has been removed. I think this is particularly relevant to game

> preservation in Japan, where the climate results in many disks having

> mold damage.

>

> Joseph Redon tells me he hasn't heard of any scientific studies on the

> efficacy of it, but that he has some skills in removal (just doesn't

> have someone to work full-time on care and cleaning of roughly

> 4000-5000 disks. So if you know anyone who is skilled in this area and

> interested in coming to Japan, I can send him or her the contact

> information!).

>

> http://cool.conservation-us.org/byorg/abbey/an/an25/an25-4/an25-408.html

> - article from 2001

>


-- 
Henry Lowood
Curator for History of Science&  Technology Collections;
   Film&  Media Collections
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood