Page 1 of 1

Recovery data from floppy disks

PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 7:11 pm
by petegeek
Hi all,
I've been recovering some data off some very old Mac floppy disks (about 20 years old).
I've had some success but have run into the problem with some disks where the oxide layer has degraded and scrapes off onto the drive heads.
I do clean the drive heads between each attempt (with isopropyl alcohol) to remove the buildup so as not to damage other disks.

I realize these floppies are probably a lost cause but I do enjoy a challenge.
Does anyone have any suggestions about how to minimize this oxide scraping while I try to read these disks?

Cheers,
Peter

Re: Recovery data from floppy disks

PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:22 pm
by tezza
Pete,

I've had this problem with 5.25 inch floppy disks and found taking them out of their covers and washing them in warm soapy water helped. I'm not sure what you'd do with a 3.5 inch disk though?

Re: Recovery data from floppy disks

PostPosted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 3:00 pm
by Gibsaw
tezza wrote:Pete,

I've had this problem with 5.25 inch floppy disks and found taking them out of their covers and washing them in warm soapy water helped. I'm not sure what you'd do with a 3.5 inch disk though?


I would imagine that with a certain amount of care and cotton buds, you can gently clean them in the cover.

Re: Recovery data from floppy disks

PostPosted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 5:53 pm
by petegeek
Thanks to you both for the great tips. Washing a floppy disk is a surprising idea!
I'm going to give that a go.
Cheers
Peter

Re: Recovery data from floppy disks

PostPosted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:07 pm
by tezza
Here is my write up on the 5.25 inch ones.
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blo ... -water.htm