5.25 floppies that read but don't write

Re: Degaussing floppies. Only part of degaussing a floppy is getting a strong enough degausser--I use on made for wiping VHS carts--it gets very hot after only about 3 minutes of use and the thermal cutout belays my impatience until it cools off. So it's definitely not wimpy. However, to use it, you have to observe the correct mumbo-jumbo. You press it against the floppy in question, hit and hold the power button and *slowly* pull the disk away, moving said disk in a roughly circular motion. A quick check using Kyread shows no discernible magnetic pattern remaining. On a related matter, I've found that using a very strong rare earth/neodymium magnet (i.e. if you get your fingers between it and a hunk of iron, you should not be surprised with broken bones or severe tissue damage) on a "bad" high-density 3.5" floppy, followed by a pass with the degausser will often return the floppy to usability. This comes up occasionally when I'm asked to repair a factory-labeled floppy that's developed issues. You want to keep the original labeling and short of inserting a new "cookie", this approach actually works. For what it's worth, I use the magnets with large steel ball bearings to roll dents out of sheet brass--so I do have a valid reason for having one around. This goes to an observation that DSHD 3.5" media appears to develop some sort of "fatigue" after a certain number of write passes. For what little it's worth, Chuck