Towards the Safe Migration of Multitrack Audio From Enhanced IDE Hard Drives

Mounting dated external hard drives and migrating their contents to new hard drives is an increasingly prevalent problem, particularly in non-institutional settings where external hard drives are viewed as a long-term storage solution or migrating content is not an established practice. Yet for archivists tasked for the first time with the preservation of digital files on obsolete storage mediums, assembling relevant documentation from existing sources and parsing its obtuse language can be daunting. This poster details a case study of process, problem solving, and adaptability: an ongoing effort to rescue multitrack live audio recordings from Enhanced IDE hard drives dating from 2003 to 2007. The issues at-hand include identifying the technical specifications of hard drives, determining compatibility issues with hardware and operating systems, locating hard drive-specific software and drivers, assembling a cost-effective set-up to mount the drives, and establishing best practices for the migration of multitrack audio recordings. As much as the poster reflects a set of base concepts and practices, it also documents the problems encountered and the solutions developed in response. In its successes, as much as in its failures, the greater significance of the example is as a representative model for how archivists without a background in digital preservation, working with various constraints, approach the migration of digital content. This knowledge is indispensable for the development of various types of resources and support that will be increasingly important for those of any background and expertise working for the digital preservation of audio and audiovisual files stored on obsolete hard drives.