• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Degausing old floppy disks?

Chuck(G) said:
If you're looking at using the RS mixmaster-type degausser for 100 floppies, be aware that it runs hot and has a thermal cutout. I believe that the instructions advise one to use it for no more than a minute at a time.
Click to expand...
I use it for a few seconds as the hum of the coil is not something I take lightly (its more of a growl really)
 
That was becoming a real problem for me. I typically dispose of perhaps 50-100 floppies at a time. Since they contain customer data, I can't toss them as-is. So degauss then discard. The magnet solution works really well for this purpose.
 
Well its opposite for me. Disks are getting harder and harder to come by and I was throwing them away by the dozens. So if I can save "some" it makes this device worthwhile. Especially on 8" disks.
 
For me, the problem is getting to be half-inch open-reel tapes; customers generally don't want to bother with getting them returned and they're piling up. Not quite sure what to do--given their age, they're probably not reusable.

However, I do accumulate a fair number DSDD 3.5" floppies from the wupro customers. I'm willing to reformat and verify them if someone makes it worth my while.
 
Chuck(G) said:
For me, the problem is getting to be half-inch open-reel tapes; customers generally don't want to bother with getting them returned and they're piling up. Not quite sure what to do--given their age, they're probably not reusable.

However, I do accumulate a fair number DSDD 3.5" floppies from the wupro customers. I'm willing to reformat and verify them if someone makes it worth my while.
Click to expand...
You let me know what "worth your while" is and we might be able to work something out.
 
Would something like this be useful for diskettes or only for self-electrocution? I do have a few C64 disks that just do not want to format on my PC - it's like they have something against the PC.
 
Way too small to do much good. I have an old tape head degausser of about that size; does zilch for floppies.

You need something with muscle. Search ebay for "realistic bulk tape eraser". Get one that looks like a kitchen hand mixer. (44-233)
 
Last edited:
Chuck(G) said:
Way too small to do much good. I have an old tape head degausser of about that size; does zilch for floppies.

You need something with muscle. Search ebay for "realistic bulk tape eraser". Get one that looks like a kitchen hand mixer. (44-233)
Click to expand...
I ordered a Realistic Magnetic Bulk Tape Eraser 44-210 today - it even has a floppy disk on the packaging and it is an RS brand, so what could go wrong? I will report whether it convinces the recalcitrant C-64 disks to become PC friendly. At $33 including shipping, I had to think it through in terms of how much use it could get, but what the heck - I figure I can use it to crack walnuts if nothing else..
 
Last edited:
I have the same - it will stop working and then you let it sit until it cools down.
 
I used a radio shack bulk eraser for disks that have been formatted with different formats.
Try this.
 
syzygy said:
I ordered a Realistic Magnetic Bulk Tape Eraser 44-210 today - it even has a floppy disk on the packaging and it is an RS brand, so what could go wrong? I will report whether it convinces the recalcitrant C-64 disks to become PC friendly. At $33 including shipping, I had to think it through in terms of how much use it could get, but what the heck - I figure I can use it to crack walnuts if nothing else..
Click to expand...
It came in. Opening the package, without undue force, a piece of the handle (around the switch, of course), was cracked and fell off. More than likely, this was do to shipping issues and it should have been packed better. It is heavy and dropping the package in some way could have caused this. I glued it back. This is actually the first time that I can remember getting something off of the bay that was damaged. I am not interested in pursuing the matter with the seller.

It erases floppy disks, no question about that. I tested it out on several. So, it works. You can hear it work. The duty cycle in the instructions was followed. You can feel it when it gets hot.

It did NOT, however, fix the C64 disks that I had mentioned. Testing two that I had already worked with and cleaned, it did have some effect. That is, I could start the formatting process on the PC (which I could not do early), but they could not finish without numerous retries and too many bad spots.

Some times in life, you just have to say "these disks are toast". :LOL:

It is not a total waste as I will get further use and test some more C-64 disks at some point and I will, on occasion, erase media with it....and crack walnuts.

That's all I got.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top