OT -- keeping old floppy disks

Stormin Mormon · 2012-02-19T20:25:08+00:00

I've got about 200 or so old A drive, 1.44 MB floppy disks. Some day, I'll set up a reader, and copy all the data onto a drive, flash drive, or burn it all the a DVD.Is there any reason to keep the old floppies? Or should I pitch em out?Christopher A. YoungLearn more about Jesus .

Feb 19, 2012 45 Replies

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G. Morgan 14 years ago

You may already be s*it outta luck already. Transfer any data you need NOW, floppies have a very short shelf life.

And yes, destroy them after you get the data.

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Jules Richardson 14 years ago

Sadly I don't think I can use those in anything :-( They were probably current-tech around '92 or so, as I remember I had a PC which came with eight of them that year (and which I upgraded to 8MB at some ridiculous expense - I bet I still have the receipt somewhere).

Most of the stuff I'm interested in is much older - although I do have a couple of PCs in overseas storage that are mid-90s (kept because their floppy controllers will handle the FM density typical of old floppies, which PCs normally aren't capable of reading)

cheers

Jules

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Stormin Mormon 14 years ago

I'll get right on it, and do what I can. For some reason, IIRC, when I got my last machine, I got a CD burner for it, and transferred a lot of my data to CD/RW.

Makes me wonder what I had several years ago, that might even be relevant to today? Resume for jobs that I no longer care about. I'm worrying about things that don't make any difference? Wouldn't be the first time, I'm sure.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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You may already be s*it outta luck already. Transfer any data you need NOW, floppies have a very short shelf life.

And yes, destroy them after you get the data.

Vote