Modernisation has a lot to answer for! For those of us old enough to remember mainframes, you couldn't stroll off with a couple of Winchester drives up your shirt!
Still, it's worrying that there doesn't seem to be any idea of what is actually on the disks, even if they are masters they should surely have backups available somewhere!
I'm sure it won't be long before the usual reassuring platitudes will be trotted out by the MoD, but in the meantime I await a flood of emails - either re dead relatives, or chances to move some serious money from Nigeria.