Path: utzoo!attcan!ncrcan!ziebmef!stephen
From: stephen@ziebmef.mef.org (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 5.25" Diskettes for Storage
Summary: old floppies
Message-ID: <1989Aug28.095418.12857@ziebmef.mef.org>
Date: 28 Aug 89 13:54:17 GMT
References: <2515@lll-lcc.UUCP> <4520@druhi.ATT.COM> <1577@lzfme.att.com>
Reply-To: stephen@ziebmef.mef.org (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: Ziebmef Public Access Unix, Toronto, Ontario
Lines: 37

In article <1577@lzfme.att.com> jwi@lzfme.att.com (J.WINER) writes:
$> >   Just recently, I discovered that about twenty 5.25" floppies
$> > written some 6-7 years ago are completely munged.  The content
$> > of the diskettes was no *major* loss, but it is particularly
$> > distressing to me to find that the life span of magnetic media
$> > is so short....
$I have no trouble reading 5.25" floppies written in 1980 on my old
$Osborne 1 (I still have the Osborne 1). It sounds like you have
$either alignment problems with your drive or you have magnetic field
$problems in your storage area.

   Yes alignment problems do happen (ask anyone who used to use Commodore
equipment, especially the 1541 disk drive).  I'd also look at your
environment for magnetic field problems.

   Some things which can cause magnetic fields include
- power supplies (your computer, your disk drive, your stereo ...)
- TVs and computer monitors
- the speakers in your stereo (even small speakers generate a field, and
  I wouldn't want to leave my disks near any sort of speakers for seven
  years!)
- fluorescent lights
- magnets (don't laugh, people have been known to attach floppy disks to the
  fridge door with magnets!)
- those nifty little gizmos that erase dictation tapes (_VERY_ strong fields
  here!)

and the list goes on.

   One more thing that might cause data to vanish after a few years - ultra-
cheap bargain-basement no-name $3.90-a-box disks.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
! Stephen M. Dunn              stephen@ziebmef.UUCP ! DISCLAIMER:  Who'd ever !
!---------------------------------------------------! claim such dumb ideas?  !
! I have become comfortably numb ...                ! I sure as heck wouldn't !