N.N. Thayer

http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3191

Those of you with un-imaged disks sitting around, disks not available
on Asimov or any other online archive, you know who you are.

*looks around suspiciously*

Bill W.

I don't know... I'm consistently amazed about how well most of my
floppy disks still work. While rummaging around in my parents'
storage recently, looking for parts of our original Apple II, I found
a box of ~60 floppies dated 1979-1982. All but two of them read
without errors.

But the first thing I did was image them (or in the case of the 13
sector disks, at least make copies onto "fresh" disks).

Under good storage conditions, floppies may last a lot longer than
anyone expected.

datajerk

On Jul 14, 3:04*pm, "Bill W." <billspam...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't know... I'm consistently amazed about how well most of my
> floppy disks still work. *While rummaging around in my parents'
> storage recently, looking for parts of our original Apple II, I found
> a box of ~60 floppies dated 1979-1982. *All but two of them read
> without errors.
>
> But the first thing I did was image them (or in the case of the 13
> sector disks, at least make copies onto "fresh" disks).
>
> Under good storage conditions, floppies may last a lot longer than
> anyone expected.

I rescued all my high school II+ floppies ('83-'85) almost two years
ago. More recently I rescued my 400K Mac floppies ('87?).

To read my Apple floppies I purchased a used //c and use ADTPro. The
Mac floppies were a bit harder. I got a used SE FDHD for $50 from my
local classifieds and was able to read the disks. To transfer to my
modern-day Mac I had to format 1.44 MB disks in the SE and use MeatNet
to transfer to a USB floppy drive. Fortunately Snow Leopard can still
read System 6 disks. After an afternoon of stuffits and xfers I had
all my old Mac disks up and running in Mini vMac.

Every disk was readable.

Happy Ending.

Bill W.

BTW, I recently inquired of Athana International (last manufacturer of
5.25" floppies?) how recently their current stock of DSDD floppies was
made. They said three years ago. So, if you want some relatively
fresh floppies for backup purposes, that might be a place to try. I
plan to order some, but haven't done so yet, so I can't offer any
other info. They go for $11.50/10 with quantity breaks at
$11.00/10@40 and $10.50/10@100.

I'm probably sitting on 3-400 unused floppies, but unopened boxes seem
even less reliable than used disks. I often find that NOS boxes of
floppies have mottled surfaces when I open them now.

Michael J. Mahon

"Bill W." <billspamcan@gmail.com> wrote:
> BTW, I recently inquired of Athana International (last manufacturer of
> 5.25" floppies?) how recently their current stock of DSDD floppies was
> made. They said three years ago. So, if you want some relatively
> fresh floppies for backup purposes, that might be a place to try. I
> plan to order some, but haven't done so yet, so I can't offer any
> other info. They go for $11.50/10 with quantity breaks at
> $11.00/10@40 and $10.50/10@100.
>
> I'm probably sitting on 3-400 unused floppies, but unopened boxes seem
> even less reliable than used disks. I often find that NOS boxes of
> floppies have mottled surfaces when I open them now.

That is the result of mold. Low humidity is a real plus in avoiding it.

Having a box get wet is a big risk factor for mold. That's why prompt
drying (at least) or copying or imaging (at best) is called for if
diskettes get damp.

Because of their absorbent liners, diskettes take a while in a dry
environment to dry completely.

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon