11 Jan
2007
11 Jan
'07
12:58 a.m.
what's the expected
remaining lifetime of a floppy? Time is probably of the essence
Chuck and Fred have more experience, but I'm assuming once they're
in a stable temp/humidity environment they should be ok for another
10 years. The stuff I'm dealing with now is stuff WAY past its shelf
live (20-30 year old tapes). I've read hundreds of floppies over the
past five years or so, and the only problems I've had have been with
70's 8" media that was stored in poor conditions where the oxide
strips off upon head contact, and the common problem with all
head-contact media of oxide/binder buildup reducing the signal level
off the head.
I absolutely agree that the discs should be copied in image format.
11 Jan
11 Jan
1:20 a.m.
On 10 Jan 2007 at 16:58, Al Kossow wrote:
Chuck and Fred have more experience, but I'm
assuming once they're
in a stable temp/humidity environment they should be ok for another
10 years. The stuff I'm dealing with now is stuff WAY past its shelf
live (20-30 year old tapes). I've read hundreds of floppies over the
past five years or so, and the only problems I've had have been with
70's 8" media that was stored in poor conditions where the oxide
strips off upon head contact, and the common problem with all
head-contact media of oxide/binder buildup reducing the signal level
off the head.
There are some brands that you look out for as being real trouble.
By and large, Dysan and Verbatim are pretty reliable. Some of the
off-brands might as well be tossed into the dumpster--it'll save you
a head cleaning and much cursing. 30-year-old 8" diskettes are
usually quite readable; the fun ones are the 5.25" disks that have
spent their life in a machine shop covered with a layer of greasy
dirt and swarf.
There's lots of old equipment still chugging along, long after the
design life has expired. Just this past week, I sent a bunch of
formatted floppies to a television production outfit in Germany--
their gear won't format floppies, but otherwise does what they need.
I had to use one of my WD 1791 prototype cards in the PC; their
format omits the IAM and the sectors are a tight fit, so the NEC PC-
style FDC won't produce them.
Cheers,
Chuck
I absolutely agree that the discs should be copied in image format.
1:33 a.m.
Al Kossow wrote:
Yes, that's been my experience too, although I've mainly dealt with 5.25"
floppies and seen the oxide problems there. I'm just not sure the poor
conditions are a root cause though, or if it's one of those "disaster waiting
to happen" scenarios - i.e. better storage will buy more time, but the
physical deterioration is going to happen sooner or later anyway.
Oh absolutely - I just meant that floppies are one of those examples of things
that aren't always best left with a museum. For a museum the problem can be
daunting because there will be limited staff and they have to worry about
everything - whereas a private individual interested in a particular class of
media (everything from a specific manufacturer, say) might have both the time
and motivation to attack that media long before the museum would have a chance
to get to it.
Tackling that sort of trusted relationship between museums and individuals is
an interesting one though, and likely further complicated by museum
certification schemes which limit what a museum can and can't do with its assets.
cheers
Jules
what's the
expected
remaining lifetime of a floppy? Time is probably of the essence
Chuck and Fred have more experience, but I'm assuming once they're
in a stable temp/humidity environment they should be ok for another
10 years. The stuff I'm dealing with now is stuff WAY past its shelf
live (20-30 year old tapes). I've read hundreds of floppies over the
past five years or so, and the only problems I've had have been with
70's 8" media that was stored in poor conditions where the oxide
strips off upon head contact, it's nice
that the stuff ends up with a museum where
lots of people can see it
Another minor point is it is probably unlikely that ANYONE
other than archivists would see the physical discs unless
there is something really unique about how they look. The
important thing to preserve is their contents. 
4:57 a.m.
From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at
yahoo.co.uk>
Al Kossow wrote:
> > what's the expected
> > remaining lifetime of a floppy? Time is probably of the essence
>
>Chuck and Fred have more experience, but I'm assuming once they're
>in a stable temp/humidity environment they should be ok for another
>10 years. The stuff I'm dealing with now is stuff WAY past its shelf
>live (20-30 year old tapes). I've read hundreds of floppies over the
>past five years or so, and the only problems I've had have been with
>70's 8" media that was stored in poor conditions where the oxide
>strips off upon head contact,
---snip---
Hi
I've found two issues with floppies. One was that the glue used
to hold the liner on, inside the envelope, bleed through the liner
and glopped on the heads.
The other was a head that wasn't perfectly smooth. I don't
know if this was from wear or someone using one of those
drive damaging head cleaner disk.
I usually clean the head(s) each time before I use a machine
that hasn't been run for a while. I find that stuff that would
normally wipe off would tend to stick to the surface if left
there for some time.
All disk loose some material but it is when the stuff sticks to
the heads that it does the most damage.
I have disk that are older then 20 years that show no indication
of immediate failure. Maybe I'm just lucky.
Dwight
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