This BBC News article discusses how archeological records kept on soon to be obsolete computer formats are in danger of being lost. The Archaeology Data Service also found that old magnetic disks were becoming corrupted as the magnetic coating on the disks had eroded over time. I felt it ironic that on 12/6/99 (December archive page) I wondered if one day there would be computer software archeologists who will prospect through old computer data reconstructing our past. However if the data is not even readable, we will lose much more than if we need to recreate the process of reading it.