[sebhc] Shelf life of floppies

[Mark Garlanger]

Does anyone know what the shelf life of floppies should be? I was able
to aquired about 80 HD 5.25" disks and 40 DD 5.25" disks that were
still sealed in their boxes.The disks had to be in the boxes for over
15 years, since a few of the boxes had a promo  which expired in 1991.
I am hoping they are all still good (I haven't been able to test them
yet, since I still don't have a working soft-sectored controller, but
a system with one should be arriving shortly.) The disks are 3M with a
'Lifetime' warranty. Amazing, the toll free number on the back of the
disk jacket is still operation, but instead of 3M, it said 'Imation
data storage customer service'. Searching around 3M and imation's
sites, it appears that Imation is a spin-off of 3M.

Anyone have any experience between the reliability of 3.5" floppies
and 5.25" ones? The 3M 5.25" disks are a better brand and have the
lifetime warranty, but they appear a little older than  a batch of 100
generic "Office Centre" DD 3.5" disks I got off of ebay. Those look
like they are from 1994 or later.

For my system, I may be able to get two external drive cases working,
one with 2 - 5.25" DS 96tpi drives, and another with 1 of those and a
3.5" DD drive. This would allow me to swap those with the H89 as
needed and I should be able back-up all the software on both 3.5" and
5.25" disks.

--
Delivered by the SEBHC Mailing List