Graham Hooley converted an old floppy disk duplicator into an archiving machine that helps in preserving old files, as first reported in The MagPi magazine.

As many computer archivists will confirm, floppy disks don’t last forever. Although some will fare better than others, magnetic media generally degrades over time, and disks can also fail due to dirt and dust if they’re not stored properly. It’s vital to archive them to a different media format as soon as possible to retain data. The trouble is that archiving can be a cumbersome, long-winded process — unless you have an innovative device to hand.

Maker and developer Graham Hooley has created such a tool — a machine that allows a bunch of 3.5-inch floppies to be stacked and automatically read one at a time. The device uses parts from existing disk duplicators as well as a Raspberry Pi 3. It allows the disk images to be backed up to a USB drive. Not only that, but a Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2 snaps photos of the disks, and these get archived as well.

Read more via Raspberry Pi News.