Why do good floppy disks go bad?

[Chuck Guzis]

On 04/08/2016 12:11 PM, Tom Gardner wrote:
> Sorry, to a EE they are all epoxies, but:

Gorilla glue is an epoxy?  News to me.

Polyurethane is far from stable over the long term and exhibits
hygroscopic properties:

For example, vide:

http://www.ptonline.com/knowledgecenter/Plastics-Drying/Resin-Types/Hygroscopic-VS-Non-Hygroscopic-Resins

...and many others.

Floppy and tape binder also is somewhat of a witches' brew as it usually
includes a fatty acid or some other substance for lubrication.

As far as "stability", that's subjective.  Most plastics will eventually
degrade; some are worse than others.  There's a big problem in the
museum archiving business that not much, other than freezing seems to
retard eventual decomposition of plastics.

--Chuck