29 Nov
1999
29 Nov
'99
11:50 a.m.
I've got hundreds of diskettes over 20 years old, and NONE have been losing
emulsion. I've had some of the jackets crack, and I've had some of the ones
which have gotten wet along the way stick in their jackets so they wouldn't
rotate, but the emulsion on those which would rotate, I've never had flaking
of the emulsion. Maybe that's because it's really dry here in Denver.
If you clean your disk heads from time to time, you'll probably not build up
enough glutch to damage a diskette.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com <CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, November 29, 1999 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: Needed: 1 IBM 8" alignment disk.
John B. wrote:
P.S. The sooner the better.. this thing is eating
original IBM software
diskettes from the early '70s
Dick wrote:
Having aligned about 25 8" drives over the
last 6 months, I can tell you
that if your drive is "eating" your diskettes, the problem isn't with
alignment.
It depends on the rate of "eating", but for 25-year old floppies it's
not unusual to have a fair bit of flaking of the emulsion on the head
(lower) side. If there's any damage on the *top* side, that's definitely
the head load pad.
Tim.