This week on the channel +114K views this week

Tech Tangents' archiving toolkit runs from floppy disks to foam board

The channel's only new upload covers obsolete media, paper manuals and hardware photography, with credits printed on a dot-matrix printer.

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Tech Tangents Story of November 10, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

State Of Archiving - How to Digitize Everything

Things we can learn from the video

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3:42GreaseWeazle is his preferred adapter for reading floppy disks across several physical formats.
8:00CD formats and mastering errors complicate preservation; he discusses redumper and OmniDrive firmware.
12:28He recommends recording data cassettes as WAV files with a good audio deck before decoding them.
16:25Analog audio capture and optical-disc ripping require different tools; raw video capture opens another preservation route.
21:45A book-edge scanner handles bound volumes, while a custom script helps process staple-bound manuals.
23:51Three foam poster boards, tape and paper become a budget light box for photographing hardware.

Tech Tangents creator AkBKukU has a solution for photographing old computer hardware that doesn't require another expensive machine: three foam poster boards, tape and paper. His homemade light box comes near the end of "State Of Archiving - How to Digitize Everything," after a tour through the considerably more elaborate business of rescuing obsolete media.

The guide moves from floppy disks and troublesome CDs to audio tapes, video capture and bound manuals. A sprawling clipart collection becomes a disc-ripping demonstration; oversized schematics get an overhead camera rig. Western Digital supplied hard drives for the video, which also shows his server storage setup.

There's room for frustration amid the practical explanations. "CDs are an abomination that no one could possibly predict what is going to be on them," AkBKukU says, before discussing the tools he uses to read them. Preserving something apparently digital isn't always a simple matter of copying files.

The upload has reached roughly 88,000 views and is comfortably the channel's busiest video right now. Older projects, including "Rebuilding IBM's Most Obnoxious PC - PS/2 Model 70 Type 1" and "Mini PC Builds for Windows 98 and XP," continue to draw smaller daily audiences. Across the channel, daily viewing is more than triple its usual level, although the subscriber count was unchanged over the week.

Among nearby technology channels, Monitors Unboxed and Adrian's Digital Basement are also seeing above-usual daily viewing. Tech Tangents' comments, meanwhile, point toward a very specific appetite: separate guides for different media, especially VHS. One viewer describes digitizing family photos and videos as a monumental task; another has already tried the OmniDrive firmware mentioned in the guide.

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What viewers say

Thankfully I have not gone down the rabbit hole of archiving *everything*, but even just digitising all the home photos and videos was a monumental task.
@NikiDaDudeSee it on YouTube
Yes an archiving series from you would be awesome. Maybe dedicated videos for particular media types so you have more time to expand on them , etc.
@CharlesStargroveSee it on YouTube
I've never heard of Omnidrive before, and turns out I have a compatible BD drive, so I flashed it, and it works perfectly!
@TanarpetiSee it on YouTube

5 more comments

Suuuuper excited for the VHS update, I have a bunch to do and am completely lost lol
@Matthew-tr6ioSee it on YouTube
Your technical equipment is intimidating.
@VoltaireVISee it on YouTube
Would love this to be a regular series!
@PlatinumCromagnonSee it on YouTube
Awesome work! Glad you are putting in this much work and attention to detail - wouldn't expect anything else from you :)
@0xbenediktSee it on YouTube
I've been archiving and digitizing almost everything I touch for a few years now. It's a fun hobby, and I love that it has practical benefits. Storage has really put a damper on larger projects. Yes, I'm at 400TB already, but the more I have, the more I want.
@AlsoAlaskanBeardSee it on YouTube