8 Nov
2007
8 Nov
'07
6:11 p.m.
On 8 Nov 2007 at 16:54, Jim Battle wrote:
Having NOS 30 year old floppies should be just fine,
I'd think.
Now if you wanted to argue that you'd rather trust backups onto virtual
disk images as being more reliable than NOS floppies, then I would agree
with you.
I wish I could agree with the "30-year-old NOS" stuff, but I've
gotten a couple of approximately 20-year-old NOS (still in shrink
wrap) boxes of 8" in the last year that have disintegrated in the
drive the first time, leaving a nice brown oxide coating layered on
the drive heads--and yours truly muttering under his breath.
On the other hand, I've had few problems with disks that were written
within a couple of years of their manufacture.
What could be going on? Could the hermetic sealing of new disks
allow the more volatile components to permeate the coating and weaken
it? Does actual use have a planishing effect on the media and render
it more permanent? I honestly don't know.
Perhaps someone has some insight into this phenomenon.
Cheers,
Chuck