Data archaeology

Data archaeology can also refer to recovering information from damaged electronic formats after natural disasters or human error.

It involves mapping out the entire lineage of data, its nature and characteristics, its quality and veracity and how these affect the analysis and interpretation of the dataset.

These approaches allowed the reconstruction of an image of the Arctic that had been captured by the Nimbus 2 satellite on September 23, 1966, in higher resolution than ever seen before from this type of data.

[2] NASA also utilises the services of data archaeologists to recover information stored on 1960s-era vintage computer tape, as exemplified by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP).

Data lineage investigation involves what instruments were used, what the selection criteria are, the measurement parameters and the sampling frameworks.

It involves mapping the sites, formats and infrastructures through which data flows and are altered or transformed over time.

This can be done via a variety of processes, interviews, analysing technical and policy documents and investigating the effect of the data on a community or the institutional, financial, legal and material framing.

The hardware was damaged from rain, salt water, and sand, yet it was possible to clean some of the disks and refit them with new cases thus saving the data within.

As a result of heavy use, some of the lubricant can remain on the read-write heads which then collect dust and particles.

This should be done cautiously, as excessive re-lubrication can cause tape slippage, which in turn can lead to media being misread and the loss of data.

The process of cleaning, rinsing, and drying wet tapes should be done at room temperature in order to prevent heat damage.

Another effective preventive measure is the use of offshore backup facilities that could not be affected should a disaster occur.