| Author: | Pete Rittwage (registered user: 558 posts ) |
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| Date: | Mon, Dec 28th, 2009 @ 14:16 ( . ) |
Well, it is finally happening. I think we are nearing the end of the MTBF shelf-life of blank floppies manufactured in the 80's. I have boxes and boxes of unused "Scholastic", "Inacomp", and "Syncom" disks and nearly all of them have errors out of the box. :( They did all mostly work 10 years ago or more when I got them from auctions, and stored in a good environment for all that time. I noticed that I didn't seem to be able to write/read good images lately and thought at first I had munged something up in NIBTOOLS, but no... They won't format on any of my drives anymore, and fail at different points during the process (repeatable). Nobody is still making new 5.25" DSDD floppies anymore, are they? I fear we may be at the end. |
 | Author: | NiVEK (registered user: 5 posts ) |
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| Date: | Tue, Dec 29th, 2009 @ 13:50 ( . ) |
All the more reason to archive everything that comes your way! I haven't checked my discs recently but a couple of years ago most were not fully readable (including my carefully stored originals). I dunno, outliving my floppies just makes me feel old... ;-) Kevin. On 12/28/2009 @ 14:16, Pete Rittwage wrote :
Well, it is finally happening. I think we are nearing the end of the MTBF shelf-life of blank floppies manufactured in the 80's. : : I have boxes and boxes of unused "Scholastic", "Inacomp", and "Syncom" disks and nearly all of them have errors out of the box. :( : : They did all mostly work 10 years ago or more when I got them from auctions, and stored in a good environment for all that time. I noticed that I didn't seem to be able to write/read good images lately and thought at first I had munged something up in NIBTOOLS, but no... They won't format on any of my drives anymore, and fail at different points during the process (repeatable). : : Nobody is still making new 5.25" DSDD floppies anymore, are they? I fear we may be at the end. : -- |
 | Author: | Johnny D (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Wed, Jan 13th, 2010 @ 00:21 ( . ) |
I found new disks on this site - couldn't tell you how old they are or when they were manufactured - but I'm sure you could email them and ask. Give it a go! [link] Good luck! |
 | Author: | Rixa (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Sat, Jan 23rd, 2010 @ 14:19 ( . ) |
I'm not sure if [link] still manufacture them or not, but their stock might be a decade or two newer than most others. Maybe. |
 | Author: | Reeljockey (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Thu, Jun 03rd, 2010 @ 19:42 ( . ) |
Check this thread... maybe some info. [link] |
 | Author: | Joe Bucci (registered user: 2 posts ) |
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| Date: | Mon, Jul 26th, 2010 @ 04:38 ( . ) |
Pete, I just saw this message. I've got one unopened box of CenTec 5-1/4" disks. They're marked "Double Sided - Double Density - Every diskette certified - 100% tested error free - Beyond 75% Clipping level (Whatever that is.) I'll send them to you! Send me a snail mail address on you, and I can send them. (It's probably on your site, but I'd rather hear from you.. (HAHA!) Howya doin'? Most Definitely, Joe Bucci mailto:joebucci@netzero.net |
| Author: | Pete Rittwage (registered user: 558 posts ) |
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| Date: | Mon, Jul 26th, 2010 @ 16:11 ( . ) |
Hi Joe, Thanks very much for your kind offer. I have e-mailed you. :) The problem eventually turned out to be a couple of failing RW heads in my drives I use. I abuse the heck out of these with old dirty disks and rubbing alcohol treatment, so eventually they die in strange ways. Pete |
 | Author: | Anubis (registered user: 12 posts ) |
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| Date: | Tue, Dec 28th, 2010 @ 22:49 ( . ) |
Pete ! I found a link today to a company that still makes floppies ! Here is the info that I got from a posting: -------------------- Hi all... I've been doing some searching to find out if there are any companies left that still manufacture 5.25" floppy disks, and I found one! David Moorman of Loadstar gave me the name of the company, and I've done a bit of legwork with them to get pricing information (their website doesn't give many specifics), so I thought I'd share what I've found with all of you. The name of the comany is ATHANA International, Inc. Their address is: 24045 Frampton Ave. Harbor City, CA 90710, U.S.A. Phone: 800-421-1591 or 310-539-7280 Fax: 310-539-6596 Website: [link] The disks I found that are ideal for Commodore use are part number 47-7501, which come in an ATHANA box, or part number 47-7501G, which come in a plain white box. These are 5.25 Inch Diskettes DD (Double Sided, Double Density), Unformatted, 48 TPI (Soft Sector). Minimum order is for 2 boxes; each box contains 10 disks. Cost for 2 - 5 boxes is $7.95 each, plus freight. Cost for 6 - 10 boxes is $7.75 each, plus freight. Bulk orders of 500 disks or more are $0.52 per disk. Cost of freight varies, but as an example, I was told that an order of 5 boxes shipped via UPS ground would have a freight charge of $5.25. For any further details, you can call them or e-mail info@athana.com. Oh, and for any of you really old school folks... They also manufacture 8" floppy disks! ;-) I hope this information is helpful for some of you... ------------------- This was posted at the following site: [link] It was from 2006, but I just tried the link and the company is still there... Hopefully this helps. Anubis |