The issue

Migration of files in one format to another format (from a different format family) can damage the content of the file.

Example

Description

Wordstar 6 migration – MS Word 97

Explanation by A. Brown of Parliamentary Archives UK: “The images arose from some experiments carried out in the late 1990s into migration, as we had a large archive of Wordstar documents, and our current desktop software was MS Word 97. Word at the time provided an add-in, giving extra filters for opening and saving in a wider range of formats than was provided as standard (as far as I’m aware, support for Wordstar was removed altogether in later versions of Word). For this experiment, I simply installed the add-in, then opened the document in Word, and subsequently saved in .doc format.

The mystery characters at the end of each word appear because Wordstar only used 7 bit ASCII, reserving the 8^th bit for other purposes, including indicating word endings. The MS Word filter clearly didn’t allow for this, and tried to interpret as 8 bit ASCII.”

Can we prevent this?

Before migrating files, it is essential that a test of the migration shows that no information is lost or unintendently added. In this case the experiment with the tool made the outcome clear.