How long do floppies last? Strategies for long-term data storage?

my archival experience

my archival experience

I've been working through archiving the floppies in my collection with a Catweasel Mk IV. My collection includes (all 5.25") Apple II, a few Atari and TI diskettes, about 300 PC disks, TRS-80, and some Kaypro disks. Somewhere on the order of 500 floppies in all.

For the most part, I've been able to generate image files of my diskettes.

Unfortunately, about 40-80 of the PC diskettes had read errors. Those disks are circa 1985-1986.

About 1-2 out of 30 Kaypro disks failed. Those disks are 25 years old.

The Apple, Atari, and TI disks read okay. Those are 25 years.

Oddly, I'm have trouble with some Microsoft Office disks for the Mac (800K 3.5"), from the mid/late 1980s.

All of these floppy images fit on a single CD-ROM. As soon as I finish the Mac 3.5" floppies, I'll organize the images a little more and then put them on a couple quality CD-ROMs and probably a DVD-R just to mix it up a bit. Heck, I do have a standalone backup hard disk (Lacie Etherdisk NAS drive) that I'll stash a copy on.

With everything in a single compact format (a CD .iso, or a big zip file), I plan to update the backup storage every 5-7 years.

At one point I came across a link that spoke about CD-ROMs rated for long term archival storage.

One of the best practices for mission critical or just data you really really don't want to use it back it up to several mediums and locations. One thing I'd like to point out is remember folks, fire proof safes are fire proof for PAPER ONLY!!! CD-Rs and Floppies will melt unless you have a certain kind of safe. Paper can go up to 233C before igniting. CD-R's tend to melt easy if left in sunlight. The foil doesn't stand up very well to sunlight but floppies seem more resistant to heat.

MattCarp said:

I've been working through archiving the floppies in my collection with a Catweasel Mk IV. My collection includes (all 5.25") Apple II, a few Atari and TI diskettes, about 300 PC disks, TRS-80, and some Kaypro disks. Somewhere on the order of 500 floppies in all.

For the most part, I've been able to generate image files of my diskettes.

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But what image format are you archiving to? Is it possible to reconstruct the diskette based on the image? How complete is the image format (ie. does it handle non-standard copy-protected floppies)?

Unfortunately, about 40-80 of the PC diskettes had read errors. Those disks are circa 1985-1986.

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Are you sure they're bad? They're probably fine, just copy-protected.

I've got a huge Atari floppy collection of (shamefaced look) largely pirated software. Before cheap hard disks, I made many copies of them. Most of the originals still work, though, and they date to the mid-80s.

They are all on my hard drive now.

Trixter said:

But what image format are you archiving to? Is it possible to reconstruct the diskette based on the image? How complete is the image format (ie. does it handle non-standard copy-protected floppies)?



Are you sure they're bad? They're probably fine, just copy-protected.

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I normally use the Unix command 'dd' to make disk images. I'm not really sure how thorough it is as far as copying copy-protected disks though. I guess I will have to dig one out and give it a try!

Floppies_only said:

I am wondering if anybody knows how long a floppy disk lasts?

On a related note, how about CDs that you burn yourself?

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I have some circa 1984 3.5" Macintosh floppies that are still holding their original data just fine. I have a large collection of circa 1984 5.25" DD MS-DOS disks that I'll be checking out in a week or two, when I finally get my PC-AT up and running, but last time I checked them about 10 years ago, every one I tried still worked fine. Of course, my 5.25" disks have always been kept in a finished basement that has had low humidity (at least 10%, usually less than 30%) and stable 68°F (20°C) temperatures constantly for the past 25 years.

Although I just acquired a VERY large collection of old disks that had been kept in a non-climate controlled storage shed for 20 years, so we'll see how those held up.

As for CD-Rs, it all depends on the quality. I have three high-quality Sony "gold leaf" 2x CD-Rs from 1997 that even have some scratches on them that still read fine; while some 'burned then put into climate-controlled storage' blue-dye 16x CD-Rs from 2001 are completely unreadable. (From what I can tell, the Sony actually does use real gold leaf with supposedly-unstable cyanine dye; while the "blue" ones are almost certainly 'disguised' cyanine dye disc.)