Floppies last longer than my CDs...

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Dec 16, 2012 3:32 pm

My wife unearthed a box full of photos on floppies (taken on an old Sony camera that had a built-in floppy drive) dating back to 1999.

I am amazed that nearly all the photo files were still readable and when I copied them to my server. I've got CD's kept in ideal conditions that aren't readable after 3 years.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Sun Dec 16, 2012 5:36 pm

I've never had a non-readable CD to date and some audio CDs date back before '97. I think I've tossed all my old floppies.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Sun Dec 16, 2012 6:22 pm

I have had both bad floppies and cd - even had cd's were the foil has pealed off the disk.

Err · Post by **Err** » Sun Dec 16, 2012 8:11 pm

When recordable CD's came out, it was luck of the draw on how long they will last. I have some that still read and play fine after 10 years and others that die after three. Magnetic storage is reliable so long as the media is stored properly and it doesn't become oxidized.

Shadow250 · Post by **Shadow250** » Sun Dec 16, 2012 8:52 pm

my floppies have all lost the data, i can reformat them and they work but i dunt trust them anymore. i do have a few zip100 disks that seem reliable though. never had a cd die without some help.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:41 am

I found that floppies just aren't made of very good quality anymore. For like the last 10 - 15 years they're just crappy. They don't have the same kind of shelf life like they used to have. When it comes the CD's and DVD's Sony and TDk seems to be the most reliable when it comes shelf life from my experience.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 6:16 am

I've had mostly good luck with the CDs I've recorded. However, in my early recording days, I was very selective of my brands to avoid coasters. As for floppies, it seems to be luck of the draw for me. I will say that I've had more than 50% failure rate though.

Hipnotic_Tranz · Post by **Hipnotic_Tranz** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 5:02 pm

Coasters. Shit....will anyone beyond our generation even realize that you can burn a bad CD? Funny thing is, when I built my "new" PC ( a shuttle box for college back in maybe...'05) I included a floppy for the "you never know" scenarios. I also still have a bootable floppy for those "you never know" scenarios.

It's funny, because...you never do know. Guess I'm lucky cause it never was known. Bootable USB has officially taken over. Sad part is, I'm sure it "officially" took over long before I ever even adopted it. I feel I'm always the one with the legacy shit "just in case."

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 8:42 pm

LOL, I just removed my floppy drive from my personal PC this year. I finally came to the point where I just never use it. What usually gets me is when there's a driver that needs to extract to a floppy & a floppy only.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 1:06 am

normalicy wrote:LOL, I just removed my floppy drive from my personal PC this year. I finally came to the point where I just never use it. What usually gets me is when there's a driver that needs to extract to a floppy & a floppy only.

Yeah, when I built my last desktop about four years ago I didn't even include one. I still have an external one that works just as well anyways if needed.