How to Approach Hard Drives as Cultural Heritage

Computers and mobile phones are piling up in archives, libraries, and museums. What kind of objects are they, what can they tell us, and how can we approach them? The aim of this chapter is to exemplify what an investigation of a hard drive implicates, the methods needed to conduct it, and what kind of results we can get out of it. To focus the investigation, hard drives are approached as records of everyday media use. The chapter introduces a computer forensic method used as a media ethnographic tool. Computer forensics and media ethnography are rooted in different methodological traditions, but both take an interest in people’s routines and the way they do and organize things. The chapter argues that a hard drive represents a window into the history of new media: into time specific software, formats, and media use.