New subject: The indefeatable 8" floppy Was : 8" floppy system needed torecoverold game data

6 Oct 2005

Hi,

I have around here maybe 400-1000 8" disks.  Most are not less than 
15 years old and some easily approaching 25-30.  I've seen a perfectly
good head and pad get gummed when the binder failed on the media.

The other case was media that was stored next to a large (50hp) AC motor.
The media was good but usedless until formatted.  The previously held 
data was largely gone due to partial erasure.

...
 [worse if mishandled] 
By that I meant stored in enviromental conditions that may result in 
binder failure.  You may have interpreted that as mechanical bend, 
fold and spindle.  Binder failure is treatable if anticipated but 
be prepared for read once.  I've had a number of my oldest 8" media
die that way.  Backups and copies prevented loss.

Allison

...

Subject: The indefeatable 8" floppy Was : 8" floppy system needed to recoverold
game data
   From: "Nico de Jong" <nico at FARUMDATA.DK>
   Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 16:09:19 +0200
     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>

Fra: "Allison" <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net>

 Again most 8" media is real old and there were a few brands of media that
 aged poorly [worse if mishandled] with media shedding being a really big
 problem.
 I'm not quite sure that I agree with you. I remember a case where a customer
called me, panic stricken, and said that his Mountain 8" loader (I still have
the power supply...) had eaten a disc with financial transactions.
When I arrived at the site, I saw that the 8" was now a 4" on one side. It was
totally mangled by the loaderpart shoving the disk into the drive. Head broken
of, etc.
New drive, but that was expected. Now we had to look at the mangled disk. There
were some dents and scratches, but we decided to try.
I sacrificed another 8" disc, in that I opened the sleve and discarded the
floppy. In with the "mangled" floppy. It read perfectly, although with a few
retries.
The epilogue was that my customer sent a civilized letter to his customer,
asking him not to put staples through the disc for the future.

Nico

The indefeatable 8" floppy Was : 8" floppy system needed to recoverold game data