finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
I recently connected my 3 1/2" floppy drive to one of my systems, and
discovered that all my old floppies are no longer readable. And, most
of them can't even be formatted successfully.
No real surprise here, since most of the disks are well over 10 years
old, including lots of those AOL freebies.
Fortunately, there was nothing valuable on the floppies. The space in
my closet was worth more than the disks themselves.
So for me, an old PC user from the CP/M days, when a "real system" was
a Z80 with dual 8" floppy drives and a dot-matrix printer, it's the
end of an era.
Re: finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
Ed Light wrote:
> Andrew Hamilton wrote:
>> I recently connected my 3 1/2" floppy drive to one of my systems, and
>> discovered that all my old floppies are no longer readable. And,
>> most of them can't even be formatted successfully.
>
> It could be the motherboard, floppy drive, or the cable reversed.
Nope, the cable reversed would see none of them being able to be formatted successfully.
Re: finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
> Fortunately, there was nothing valuable on the floppies. The space in
> my closet was worth more than the disks themselves.
> So for me, an old PC user from the CP/M days, when a "real system" was
> a Z80 with dual 8" floppy drives and a dot-matrix printer, it's the
> end of an era.
Does US EPA have a policy to recycle old floppy diskettes?
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Re: finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
On 2009-09-15, Andrew Hamilton <Ahamilton90900@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I recently connected my 3 1/2" floppy drive to one of my systems, and
> discovered that all my old floppies are no longer readable. And, most
> of them can't even be formatted successfully.
I fired up my old Commodore 64 recently and was surprised to find how
many of the 20+ year-old floppy discs would still load up.
--
Roger Blake
(Subtract 10s for email. "Google Groups" messages killfiled due to spam.)
"Obama dozed while people froze."
Re: finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:51:26 -0700, Ed Light <nobody@nobody.there>
wrote:
>Andrew Hamilton wrote:
>> I recently connected my 3 1/2" floppy drive to one of my systems, and
>> discovered that all my old floppies are no longer readable. And, most
>> of them can't even be formatted successfully.
>
>It could be the motherboard, floppy drive, or the cable reversed.
I considered that, but that wasn't the real problem.
Re: finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
Andrew Hamilton wrote:
>
> I recently connected my 3 1/2" floppy drive to one of my systems, and
> discovered that all my old floppies are no longer readable. And, most
> of them can't even be formatted successfully.
>
> No real surprise here, since most of the disks are well over 10 years
> old, including lots of those AOL freebies.
>
> Fortunately, there was nothing valuable on the floppies. The space in
> my closet was worth more than the disks themselves.
>
> So for me, an old PC user from the CP/M days, when a "real system" was
> a Z80 with dual 8" floppy drives and a dot-matrix printer, it's the
> end of an era.
>
> -AH
Hello, Andrew:
I'm planning to build a new computer, and have already gathered all
the necessary components; one of those is a black Sony 3.5" floppy
drive (internal).
Even though I've rarely used diskettes, the past several years --
what can it possibly hurt, to install such a device? :-J
--
Cordially,
John Turco <jtur@concentric.net>
Paintings Pain and Pun <http://laughatthepain.blogspot.com>
Re: finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
On Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:23:27 -0500, John Turco <jtur@concentric.net>
put finger to keyboard and composed:
>I'm planning to build a new computer, and have already gathered all
>the necessary components; one of those is a black Sony 3.5" floppy
>drive (internal).
>
>Even though I've rarely used diskettes, the past several years --
>what can it possibly hurt, to install such a device? :-J
Yes, it's hard to beat the old floppy. There's still a long time to go
before I toss mine. ;-)
- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
Re: finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
On Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:23:27 -0500, John Turco <jtur@concentric.net>
wrote:
>
>Hello, Andrew:
>
>I'm planning to build a new computer, and have already gathered all
>the necessary components; one of those is a black Sony 3.5" floppy
>drive (internal).
>
>Even though I've rarely used diskettes, the past several years --
>what can it possibly hurt, to install such a device? :-J
Of course it can't _ hurt _ . The question is how much will it help. In practical terms, it's easy to get a PowerPoint file that is
2-3-4 MB, or more. Can't move that PPT file with a floppy drive and
diskette.
The other day I paid about $35 for a 16 GB Kingston Data Traveler.
Much more convenient, works without additional drivers on almost all
modern desktops and laptops. Faster, quieter. And about 1200 X the
capacity of the standard 1.44 MB floppy. What's not to like?
Re: finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:49:13 +1000, Franc Zabkar
<fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote:
>On Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:23:27 -0500, John Turco <jtur@concentric.net>
>put finger to keyboard and composed:
>
>>I'm planning to build a new computer, and have already gathered all
>>the necessary components; one of those is a black Sony 3.5" floppy
>>drive (internal).
>>
>>Even though I've rarely used diskettes, the past several years --
>>what can it possibly hurt, to install such a device? :-J
>
>Yes, it's hard to beat the old floppy. There's still a long time to go
>before I toss mine. ;-)
You'll probably discover that all your old diskettes are no longer
readable. Intrinsic to any magnetic media, including tape, which
means all your old VCR tapes will eventually become unplayable.
Re: finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era
Andrew Hamilton wrote:
> The other day I paid about $35 for a 16 GB Kingston Data Traveler.
> Much more convenient, works without additional drivers on almost all
> modern desktops and laptops. Faster, quieter. And about 1200 X the
> capacity of the standard 1.44 MB floppy. What's not to like?
Beware that thumb drives can get corrupted. Be sure to have the data
backed up.
finally tossing all my old floppy disks - the end of an era 
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