Antistatic plastic bags for floppy disks?

[jedvard]

Hi im building up my floppy collection and want to store them in a safe way.
At the moment i keep them in small ziplocked plastic bags but is it nessesary to store them in ESD or antistatic bags? will static electricity damage my disks?

[Jope]

No need to worry about static electricity.

[jedvard]

Originally Posted by Jope

No need to worry about static electricity.

ok thanx for your answer
is ziplocked god or bad? i dont want any dust to reach my disks but maybe a closed zipbag will produce more mold and humidity?

[nogginthenog]

Add some silica gel packets. You can buy 100 for £2/23kr on Aliexpress

[Mrz]

the best way to store floppy disks is the the space vacuum

the most harmful for the floppy disks is the earth atmosphere,especially the oxygen and the high humidity , which produce in the disc fungus and and oxide

inside the planet earth you can purchase boxes which produce vacuum inside and put the floppy disks there, will last forever

[demolition]

Originally Posted by nogginthenog

Add some silica gel packets. You can buy 100 for £2/23kr on Aliexpress

Yep, just bake them first to make sure they are dry in case they have been left out for a while.
https://sciencing.com/dry-desiccant-5939321.html

A floppy disk's worst enemy is moisture so a silice gel packet in a ziplock bag with the disk stored in a dry location which has a constant temperature (changing temps can create condensation) should keep it stable for a very long time.

[Jope]

If it's a warez disk, an adf + jpg of it is much easier to store reliably, though. Make a few copies onto separate drives, take one to work, leave one on a shelf at home..

[Hewitson]

Moisture might be the worst enemy for the actual disk, but magnetic fields are the worst enemy for the data. Avoid putting your disks near speakers, CRT monitors, etc.

[Signman]

I bought a box of miscellaneous floppies last year on a lark and when received they felt like they were stored at the beach. Gritty and mostly unusable. God knows where they were stored.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Velstadt

Well, I also thought that I do not have to worry about static electricity, however a couple of my disks got broken!

And how do you know that static electricity was the cause?

I can't see how static electricity could produce a strong magnetic field powerful enough to change the data. Time will however, accelerated by moisture.

One might even argue that static electricity might be good for the disk since that implies dry conditions which makes for more chemically stable conditions.

[Kin Hell]

Keep Magnetic Media away from other Magnetic Sources such as Speakers, TV Screens if CRT....

Store them in a dark dry environment. Sweating will cause mildew/mould to form. - Usually discovered when your Floppy Drive makes a Scuffing sound when reading a Disk & fails. - Then you have a pile of mould ruining your Floppy Drive's heads.

[pandy71]

You can use ISO 18923:2000 ( https://www.iso.org/standard/27619.html ) as reference and information bellow:

https://www.digital-scrapbooking-sto...k-storage.html
https://www.digital-scrapbooking-sto...e-storage.html https://www.archives.gov/preservatio...o-storage.html

Personally i would not pack each floppy in separate foil bag... but i would seriously consider to pack group of floppies, preferably stored in mechanically rigid enclosure in larger plastic bag together with some desiccants and perhaps if feasible removed excessive air.

Magnetic problems can be solved by using so called "zero gauss chamber" (or more practical soft steel enclosure such as tool box with some rule that floppies must be stored with distance from each metal wall at least 2 inches - seem surplus steel ammunition boxes looks relatively inexpensive - there is a chance that floppies may even sustain EMP with this kind of preservation).