kishy
Veteran Member
I have gone through the last couple days extensive testing (basically, Scandisk and a format with two different drives on the same set of disks) on the majority of my 5.25" floppy disks. All disks are DS/DD except a couple which are those oddball 96tpi disks (I don't even know what you call those). All were and are formatted as 1.2mb.
The reason for the testing was the high rate of errors I was finding the last time I used them. "Data error reading drive B", "General failure reading drive B", "Seek error reading drive B" and the like.
The results are not surprising, and not good. All of them are at least 50% bad sectored, giving me (in effect) a pile of unreliable 360k disks...
I sort of doubt it, but is there any sort of magic repair solution for these? Perhaps some kind of waving pattern with a magnet?
Once bad sectors start developing, my understanding (and experience) is that the affected disk will just keep getting worse with time, whether it is used or not, so they're basically trash from the time the first bad sector develops.
Any ideas? If it's a hopeless cause I'll turn them into some kind of decoration.
Oh, and I have a never-opened box of Fujifilm 5.25" disks with a lifetime replacement warranty based on manufacturer defects. Given that the package has never been opened, wouldn't anything wrong with them technically be a manufacturer defect? I wonder if Fujifilm is prepared to back up that warranty...
The reason for the testing was the high rate of errors I was finding the last time I used them. "Data error reading drive B", "General failure reading drive B", "Seek error reading drive B" and the like.
The results are not surprising, and not good. All of them are at least 50% bad sectored, giving me (in effect) a pile of unreliable 360k disks...
I sort of doubt it, but is there any sort of magic repair solution for these? Perhaps some kind of waving pattern with a magnet?
Once bad sectors start developing, my understanding (and experience) is that the affected disk will just keep getting worse with time, whether it is used or not, so they're basically trash from the time the first bad sector develops.
Any ideas? If it's a hopeless cause I'll turn them into some kind of decoration.
Oh, and I have a never-opened box of Fujifilm 5.25" disks with a lifetime replacement warranty based on manufacturer defects. Given that the package has never been opened, wouldn't anything wrong with them technically be a manufacturer defect? I wonder if Fujifilm is prepared to back up that warranty...