I was driving on the highway last weekend, and as I turned one way, my
thoughts turned to my Apple II disks. I don't know why. But I was wondering about how long my 5.25" disks will remain readable. It seems to me that if they're stored in an agreeable environment, they ought to last another generation. After all, magnetic tapes from NASA missions and The Beatles in
the 1960s can still be played back. But it probably depends on how well they were manufactured to begin with.

The oldest 5.25" disks I have are from at least the year 1980 or 1981. So on average, between 40 to 45 years old. I probably have a few late 70s disks in 13-sector format too. Late 70s disks are not too far away from 50 years old. (By the way, the FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY of the Apple II is coming in just 2 years! :-0 Yowza.)

Here's the point of this discussion: does anyone have any disks in his collection that he knows were readable, say, 10 or more years ago; but today are no longer readable? And I don't mean just completely unreadable, but
maybe with a few sector errors. And if so, how were these disks stored? Were they in a bad environment like an attic or a garage, or were they always
kept within the conditioned living spaces of a home or office?

Speculation and anecdotes are of course welcome here. :-)

--
]DF$
The New Apple II User's Guide:
https://macgui.com/newa2guide/

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D Finnigan <dog_cow@macgui.com> wrote:

I was driving on the highway last weekend, and as I turned one way, my thoughts turned to my Apple II disks. I don't know why. But I was wondering about how long my 5.25" disks will remain readable. It seems to me that if they're stored in an agreeable environment, they ought to last another generation. After all, magnetic tapes from NASA missions and The Beatles in the 1960s can still be played back. But it probably depends on how well they were manufactured to begin with.

The oldest 5.25" disks I have are from at least the year 1980 or 1981. So on average, between 40 to 45 years old. I probably have a few late 70s disks in 13-sector format too. Late 70s disks are not too far away from 50 years old. (By the way, the FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY of the Apple II is coming in just 2 years! :-0 Yowza.)

Here's the point of this discussion: does anyone have any disks in his collection that he knows were readable, say, 10 or more years ago; but today are no longer readable? And I don't mean just completely unreadable, but maybe with a few sector errors. And if so, how were these disks stored? Were they in a bad environment like an attic or a garage, or were they always
kept within the conditioned living spaces of a home or office?

Speculation and anecdotes are of course welcome here. :-)

Your thoughts about the importance of the environment floppies are stored
in are quite accurate. A well-made floppy should have a very long useful
life if properly stored (cool, dry, preferably vertical).

Early in the game, say late 70s to early 80s, there were some sketchy manufacturers who sold less reliable diskettes—some simply wouldn’t format, some would only work on one side, and some had defective binders, so that
after a while the magnetic coating would begin to flake off.

By the mid- to late-80s most floppies were quite reliable.

Of course, floppies are read by a head in contact with the magnetic media,
so wear and dirty heads can shorten the useful life. In cases of dirt pollution, I’ve often found that carefully slitting the jacket, removing
the disk, and gently wiping the media with tissue dampened with isopropyl alcohol will allow the disk to be read after slipping it back into a clean jacket. (This read should preferably be to copy it to a good diskette!)

Diskettes are more reliable than many expect if treated and stored
properly.

--
-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://michaeljmahon.com

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On 2025-05-24 23:03:10 +0000, Michael J. Mahon said:

D Finnigan <dog_cow@macgui.com> wrote:

I was driving on the highway last weekend, and as I turned one way, my
thoughts turned to my Apple II disks. I don't know why. But I was wondering >> about how long my 5.25" disks will remain readable. It seems to me that if >> they're stored in an agreeable environment, they ought to last another
generation. After all, magnetic tapes from NASA missions and The Beatles in >> the 1960s can still be played back. But it probably depends on how well they >> were manufactured to begin with.

The oldest 5.25" disks I have are from at least the year 1980 or 1981. So on >> average, between 40 to 45 years old. I probably have a few late 70s disks in >> 13-sector format too. Late 70s disks are not too far away from 50 years old. >> (By the way, the FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY of the Apple II is coming in just 2
years! :-0 Yowza.)

Here's the point of this discussion: does anyone have any disks in his
collection that he knows were readable, say, 10 or more years ago; but today >> are no longer readable? And I don't mean just completely unreadable, but
maybe with a few sector errors. And if so, how were these disks stored? Were >> they in a bad environment like an attic or a garage, or were they always
kept within the conditioned living spaces of a home or office?

Speculation and anecdotes are of course welcome here. :-)

Your thoughts about the importance of the environment floppies are stored
in are quite accurate. A well-made floppy should have a very long useful
life if properly stored (cool, dry, preferably vertical).

Early in the game, say late 70s to early 80s, there were some sketchy manufacturers who sold less reliable diskettes—some simply wouldn’t format,
some would only work on one side,

Disks were often manfactured as double-sided, but if they failed in
testing on one side were sold as single-sided instead. Of course, many
of us oldies simply punched an extra hole in the disk cover to make
them into double-sided anyway, and I personally never had any problems
with them.

and some had defective binders, so that after a while the magnetic
coating would begin to flake off.

By the mid- to late-80s most floppies were quite reliable.

Of course, floppies are read by a head in contact with the magnetic media,
so wear and dirty heads can shorten the useful life. In cases of dirt pollution, I’ve often found that carefully slitting the jacket, removing the disk, and gently wiping the media with tissue dampened with isopropyl alcohol will allow the disk to be read after slipping it back into a clean jacket. (This read should preferably be to copy it to a good diskette!)

Diskettes are more reliable than many expect if treated and stored
properly.

I've got old lots of Macintosh 3.5in disks that still work perfectly
well, as well as old hard drives. I've also got a pile of old Amiga
3.5in disks, but with no way to read them (at least not without
spending realitively expensive amount of money for basically a one-off
task), I have no idea if they are any good or not.

Same of course is true with the similarly made video tapes, which I
also have quite a lot of.

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