9 Feb
2009
9 Feb
'09
5:25 p.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
But how do you "maintain" floppy media?
Sure, the machines can be kept going - replacing a chip here and
there, or when supplies of those chips have gone, by simulating the
device's function in whatever logic is flavour of the period.
But it seems apparent that floppies fail - either through wear or
natural deterioration. You could simulate the drive and media (as I
mentioned), but then it's not "floppy disk" any more.
I don't think anyone's going to invest the time and money needed to
truly preserve floppies intact; that sounds like a lot of expensive
analysis into why binders fail, and a lot of expensive research to
then fix the problem - a problem that almost nobody in the commercial
arena cares about.
That is already being done for the Commodore 64 with the .G64 file
format which is a GCR encoded 1541 disk image. This copies everything
including the protection. See http://c64preservation.com/ .
Cheers,
Bryan
I suppose someone might magic up a way of creating DIY
floppies from
scratch in a home lab, but I'm not holding my breath.