6 Nov
2007
6 Nov
'07
9:09 p.m.
Has anyone bought disks from http://www.athana.com ?
I'm pretty sure I sent a price quote request in before, but don't
remember hearing anything back. I just sent in another.
What kinds of prices do these guys have?
Anywhere else that has new 32 hard sectored 8" disks for sale?
Grant
6 Nov
6 Nov
9:18 p.m.
Quoting Grant Stockly <grant at stockly.com>:
Has anyone bought disks from http://www.athana.com ?
I'm pretty sure I sent a price quote request in before, but don't
remember hearing anything back. I just sent in another.
What kinds of prices do these guys have?
Anywhere else that has new 32 hard sectored 8" disks for sale?
Grant
that is a name I haven't heard in a while..... Athana.
7 Nov
7 Nov
12:16 a.m.
On 6 Nov 2007 at 17:09, Grant Stockly wrote:
Anywhere else that has new 32 hard sectored 8"
disks for sale?
Dunno, but they shouldn't be unobtainium. I've got a couple of boxes
with the Wang name on them--and other wapros used that format--Harris
Lanier, etc.
Cheers,
Chuck
9:15 a.m.
Anywhere else that has new 32 hard sectored 8"
disks for sale?
I'm sure you will be best off with new media, however in the event
that you can't find a suitable vendor, I might be able to help.
I have several unopened boxes of 8" 32 sector diskettes. These are
NOT new (as in of recent manufacture), but are unused and still
sealed in the original shrink wrap. Drop me a line off-list if
you need them.
Dave
--
dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html
8 Nov
8 Nov
2:54 p.m.
At 05:09 PM 11/6/2007, you wrote:
Has anyone bought disks from http://www.athana.com ?
Anywhere else that has new 32 hard sectored 8" disks for sale?
Grant
How "bad" are NOS disks? Is it worth a little under $10 for backing
up "important" stuff? The disks ARE in stock. I didn't ask about
any soft sectored disks...
I think I am fine for now. People have graciously offered to give me
disks, which I didn't expect! : )
Grant
==========
Hello Mr. Stockly,
Thank you for your inquiry about 8" Diskettes SSDD 32 Hard Sectors.
The price is $95.00 Box of 10
plus freight for 1-2 boxes. and $6.75/diskette for 500 ea. bulk with
envelope. plus shipping. We accept
Visa, MasterCard & American Express. If you have any questions,
please let us know. We will be glad
to help.
3:30 p.m.
On 8 Nov 2007 at 10:54, Grant Stockly wrote:
How "bad" are NOS disks? Is it worth a
little under $10 for backing
up "important" stuff? The disks ARE in stock. I didn't ask about
any soft sectored disks...
I think I am fine for now. People have graciously offered to give me
disks, which I didn't expect! : )
Well, if it was important, I wouldn't back it up on NOS 8" floppies,
unless the manufacturing date was sometime in the last 10 years.
This is where you have to ask yourself if the format of the data is
more important than the data itself.
Cheers,
Chuck
5:54 p.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 8 Nov 2007 at 10:54, Grant Stockly wrote:
Chuck,
I'm really surprised to hear you say this. Common consensus, including
your own voice expressed in previous emails here, is that 25 year old 8"
floppies are very reliable, much more so than floppies made in the past
10 years. And that is for floppies that have been used and stored in
sub-optimal conditions, often.
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.
How "bad" are NOS disks? Is it worth a
little under $10 for backing
up "important" stuff? The disks ARE in stock. I didn't ask about
any soft sectored disks...
I think I am fine for now. People have graciously offered to give me
disks, which I didn't expect! : )
Well, if it was important, I wouldn't back it up on NOS 8" floppies,
unless the manufacturing date was sometime in the last 10 years.
This is where you have to ask yourself if the format of the data is
more important than the data itself.
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
6:37 p.m.
--- Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
What could be going on? Could the hermetic sealing
of new disks
allow the more volatile components to permeate the
coating and weaken
it?
Perhaps. But I think it much more likely that the
binder formulation was bad. I've heard on this group
and elsewhere that Wabash and early 80's
pre-"DataLife" Verbatim disks were defective and
failed early. Formulations presumably changed over
time, and there is certainly an opportunity for
defective production lots. If the similar phenomenon
in magnetic tape is relevant, heat and moisture
accelerate binder breakdown.
What brand of disks failed in this way? Was there a
part number or other identifier? It would be
interesting to collect data on vintage/SKU and brand
of
disks vs. observations of binder breakdown or
successful usage.
--Bill
8:21 p.m.
On 8 Nov 2007 at 15:37, William Maddox wrote:
What brand of disks failed in this way? Was there a
part number or other identifier? It would be
interesting to collect data on vintage/SKU and brand
of disks vs. observations of binder breakdown or
successful usage.
Bill, of the ones I bothered to keep, I've got a box of T?ndy-branded
8-inchers here. Cat no. 26-4906. Still has the price tag on it--
$44.95 (when that was real money).
I've got other brands that work just fine; BASF, HP, Dysan. I have
to admit to being partial to Dysans.
Cheers,
Chuck
9:55 p.m.
I'm really surprised to hear you say this. Common
consensus, including
your own voice expressed in previous emails here, is that 25 year old 8"
floppies are very reliable, much more so than floppies made in the past
10 years. And that is for floppies that have been used and stored in
sub-optimal conditions, often.
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.
My main concern isn't so much the media (although I wouldn't trust
important data to 25 year old media) - it's the the hardware that
reads it ... 32 hard sector disks are not going to be easily readable
elsewhere, so if the disk system goes "down for the count", you are
faced with a tough job to recover the data - having it arcived with
a few copies of the data (or even disk images) on CD/DVD and you have
a much better chance of being able to access it.
Dave
--
dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html
3:33 p.m.
New subject: Tamper-proof bits
Referring back to a discussion on getting into equipment with tamper-
proof bolts, I note that our favorite cheap Chinese tool store has a
sale on a 100 pc. tamper-proof bit set:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91310
Six bucks. Not too bad if you don't use them often.
Cheers,
Chuck
11:49 a.m.
New subject: Tamper-proof bits
Chuck Guzis wrote:
Referring back to a discussion on getting into
equipment with tamper-
proof bolts, I note that our favorite cheap Chinese tool store has a
sale on a 100 pc. tamper-proof bit set:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91310
Six bucks. Not too bad if you don't use them often.
I have that exact set (or maybe a cheap knock-off :-)).
It looks cheap, but I've yet to destroy any of the bits (or any of the
fasteners
I've tried to undo with said bits).
FWIW.
Antonio
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.25/1118 - Release Date:
08/11/2007 09:29
3:42 p.m.
New subject: Tamper-proof bits
Chuck Guzis wrote:
Referring back to a discussion on getting into
equipment with tamper-
proof bolts, I note that our favorite cheap Chinese tool store has a
sale on a 100 pc. tamper-proof bit set:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91310
Six bucks. Not too bad if you don't use them often.
My issue with cheap bits is that they don't hold up to even the normal
everyday humidity around here.
I've never had a problem with bits from a reputable source.
Peace... Sridhar
8:18 p.m.
New subject: Tamper-proof bits
On Thu, 8 Nov 2007, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Referring back to a discussion on getting into
equipment with tamper-
proof bolts, I note that our favorite cheap Chinese tool store has a
sale on a 100 pc. tamper-proof bit set:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91310
Six bucks. Not too bad if you don't use them often.
The set I have is nearly identical to this one:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=93388
It came from MCM electronics 8-10 years ago and I've yet to break any of
the bits. If you already have full sets of the other more standard bits
(which I did) it works pretty well as a suplemental set. I probably use
the tri-wing and pin-type spanner bits more than anything else in the set.
6096
days inactive
6098
days old
14 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
arcarlini＠iee.org -
cclist＠sydex.com -
dave06a＠dunfield.com -
frustum＠pacbell.net -
geoffr＠zipcon.net -
grant＠stockly.com -
ploopster＠gmail.com -
tothwolf＠concentric.net -
wmaddox＠pacbell.net