Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Your Name Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: How about your 5.25" disks? Date: Sun, 25 May 2025 13:03:33 +1200 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 68 Message-ID: <100tq95$111hq$1@dont-email.me> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 25 May 2025 03:03:34 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="03aec0a3a2f41a6e6f027d7bbf44921a"; logging-data="1082938"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19GQgJ6Ad6rc50k9jHUHO/HlLxTazZemqc=" User-Agent: Unison/2.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:kVRGPrpcrIZJLCzLfsN/ak7P2fc= Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.apple2:49198 On 2025-05-24 23:03:10 +0000, Michael J. Mahon said: > D Finnigan wrote: >> I was driving on the highway last weekend, and as I turned one way, my >> thoughts turned to my Apple II disks. I don't know why. But I was wondering >> about how long my 5.25" disks will remain readable. It seems to me that if >> they're stored in an agreeable environment, they ought to last another >> generation. After all, magnetic tapes from NASA missions and The Beatles in >> the 1960s can still be played back. But it probably depends on how well they >> were manufactured to begin with. >> >> The oldest 5.25" disks I have are from at least the year 1980 or 1981. So on >> average, between 40 to 45 years old. I probably have a few late 70s disks in >> 13-sector format too. Late 70s disks are not too far away from 50 years old. >> (By the way, the FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY of the Apple II is coming in just 2 >> years! :-0 Yowza.) >> >> Here's the point of this discussion: does anyone have any disks in his >> collection that he knows were readable, say, 10 or more years ago; but today >> are no longer readable? And I don't mean just completely unreadable, but >> maybe with a few sector errors. And if so, how were these disks stored? Were >> they in a bad environment like an attic or a garage, or were they always >> kept within the conditioned living spaces of a home or office? >> >> Speculation and anecdotes are of course welcome here. :-) > > Your thoughts about the importance of the environment floppies are stored > in are quite accurate. A well-made floppy should have a very long useful > life if properly stored (cool, dry, preferably vertical). > > Early in the game, say late 70s to early 80s, there were some sketchy > manufacturers who sold less reliable diskettes—some simply wouldn’t format, > some would only work on one side, Disks were often manfactured as double-sided, but if they failed in testing on one side were sold as single-sided instead. Of course, many of us oldies simply punched an extra hole in the disk cover to make them into double-sided anyway, and I personally never had any problems with them. > and some had defective binders, so that after a while the magnetic > coating would begin to flake off. > > By the mid- to late-80s most floppies were quite reliable. > > Of course, floppies are read by a head in contact with the magnetic media, > so wear and dirty heads can shorten the useful life. In cases of dirt > pollution, I’ve often found that carefully slitting the jacket, removing > the disk, and gently wiping the media with tissue dampened with isopropyl > alcohol will allow the disk to be read after slipping it back into a clean > jacket. (This read should preferably be to copy it to a good diskette!) > > Diskettes are more reliable than many expect if treated and stored > properly. I've got old lots of Macintosh 3.5in disks that still work perfectly well, as well as old hard drives. I've also got a pile of old Amiga 3.5in disks, but with no way to read them (at least not without spending realitively expensive amount of money for basically a one-off task), I have no idea if they are any good or not. Same of course is true with the similarly made video tapes, which I also have quite a lot of.