My 20 yr old floppies still work!

mikele · 22 July 2012, 19:28

Yesterday finally managed to spare some time to tinker with recently purchased A1200. Guess what, 90% of my old floppies turned out to be readable! Mostly stuff written in early to mid 90s: text files, pics, games.
The oldest files I had were stored on 1986 (!) Amiga Texcraft Plus floppy. The ATP itself seems corrupted (reading errors), while text files were securely copied to hard disk.

What's funnier I discovered some crude graphics I did using DPaint I completely forgot about. It was like travelling in time

ptyerman · 22 July 2012, 20:32

That's cool. I recently installed X-Com UFO Enemy Unknown AGA from HD floppies that's been sat in a disk box since about 1994, no errors either. Guess that debunks the myth that HD floppys degrade when written as Double Density!

Thorham · 22 July 2012, 20:37

Some probably do degrade, so it's hit and miss. Just be careful and back up your files as quickly as possible to be on the safe side (also because floppies don't live forever)

mikele · 22 July 2012, 22:34

some of my floppies were 1.44 MB ones written as DD and they seem fine. On the other hand I've had many CDs, ZIPs, Syquests, USB sticks totally dead! Ironic that obsolete technology still delivers!

Thorman: thanks, already did a back up.

BarryB · 22 July 2012, 22:51

I've had an absolute cow with some of my Amiga originals as kaffer will know about!!

Luckily I managed to 'Digitally re-master' them using a cotton bud, Foam-Clene and water

I think some mould or other 'growth' must have got onto a few of them even though they were stored in their boxes in a dry cupboard for 20/25 years!! Basically I just 'washed' the debris off the disk with a wet cotton bud and dried it with a tissue which allowed them all to eventually read. It took quite a while as some were covered on both sides of the disk but perseverance paid off and I got good dumps of all of them with my Kryoflux

The best part is I created IPFs of them using kaffers Linux tools so now I have them safely stored on my HDD ready to write back to floppy whenever I need them

They should be safe as I don't think IPFs suffer from mould do they

ElectroBlaster · 22 July 2012, 23:52

Only if the mould got imaged aswell and lives on in data form lol

Joking aside I hate mould with a passion. I did not care how my disks were stored years ago, so I lost loads

Still I did have the forsight to image alot of important stuff back in 2000 so im glad I bothered.

Using the cotton bud trick and some tape cleaner really does work n all! I managed to save and repair an old original atari st disk from 1987 which really did feel like a massive victory.

source · 23 July 2012, 01:11

Is there a way to make IPF format from the amiga? I have a number of disks that I would like to backup before they go bad.

BarryB · 23 July 2012, 01:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by source

Is there a way to make IPF format from the amiga? I have a number of disks that I would like to backup before they go bad.

Well, there are a few things you need:

1. A Kryoflux + PC + PC 3.5" Floppy Drive + external PSU + DTC software
2. A version of Linux (I use Fedora 17 running in a VM)
3. kaffers Amiga Disk Utilities installed in Linux
4. Kryoflux STREAM dumps of your disks (preferably disks should be crud/mould/mildew/snot free!!)
5. Support for you particular disk format in kaffers tools.

OR

1. A Kryoflux + PC + PC 3.5" Floppy Drive + external PSU + DTC software
2. The relevant SPS IPF file (Don't ask where to get them though!!)
3. A blank Amiga disk.

So, you still want to make an IPF? Plus, it must be stressed the IPFs kaffers tools make are not the same as an official SPS IPF, they do contain all the info to re-create the disk but are not an official release and are not supported by SPS!!

22 July 2012, 19:28	#1
mikele Registered User Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: poland Posts: 307	My 20 yr old floppies still work! Yesterday finally managed to spare some time to tinker with recently purchased A1200. Guess what, 90% of my old floppies turned out to be readable! Mostly stuff written in early to mid 90s: text files, pics, games. The oldest files I had were stored on 1986 (!) Amiga Texcraft Plus floppy. The ATP itself seems corrupted (reading errors), while text files were securely copied to hard disk. What's funnier I discovered some crude graphics I did using DPaint I completely forgot about. It was like travelling in time

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22 July 2012, 20:32	#2
ptyerman Registered User Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Worksop/UK Age: 59 Posts: 1,328	That's cool. I recently installed X-Com UFO Enemy Unknown AGA from HD floppies that's been sat in a disk box since about 1994, no errors either. Guess that debunks the myth that HD floppys degrade when written as Double Density!

22 July 2012, 20:37	#3
Thorham Computer Nerd Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Rotterdam/Netherlands Age: 47 Posts: 3,764	Some probably do degrade, so it's hit and miss. Just be careful and back up your files as quickly as possible to be on the safe side (also because floppies don't live forever)

22 July 2012, 22:34	#4
mikele Registered User Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: poland Posts: 307	some of my floppies were 1.44 MB ones written as DD and they seem fine. On the other hand I've had many CDs, ZIPs, Syquests, USB sticks totally dead! Ironic that obsolete technology still delivers! Thorman: thanks, already did a back up.

22 July 2012, 22:51	#5
BarryB Amigaholic Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: UK Posts: 4,704	I've had an absolute cow with some of my Amiga originals as kaffer will know about!! Luckily I managed to 'Digitally re-master' them using a cotton bud, Foam-Clene and water I think some mould or other 'growth' must have got onto a few of them even though they were stored in their boxes in a dry cupboard for 20/25 years!! Basically I just 'washed' the debris off the disk with a wet cotton bud and dried it with a tissue which allowed them all to eventually read. It took quite a while as some were covered on both sides of the disk but perseverance paid off and I got good dumps of all of them with my Kryoflux The best part is I created IPFs of them using kaffers Linux tools so now I have them safely stored on my HDD ready to write back to floppy whenever I need them They should be safe as I don't think IPFs suffer from mould do they

22 July 2012, 23:52	#6
ElectroBlaster Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Exeter, Devon, UK Age: 49 Posts: 1,706	Only if the mould got imaged aswell and lives on in data form lol Joking aside I hate mould with a passion. I did not care how my disks were stored years ago, so I lost loads Still I did have the forsight to image alot of important stuff back in 2000 so im glad I bothered. Using the cotton bud trick and some tape cleaner really does work n all! I managed to save and repair an old original atari st disk from 1987 which really did feel like a massive victory.

23 July 2012, 01:11	#7
source Zone Friend Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 734	Is there a way to make IPF format from the amiga? I have a number of disks that I would like to backup before they go bad.

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