If you've ever wondered what 1GB worth of 1.44MB floppy disks looks like:

[FleetwoodMacAndCheese]

Getting ready for the VCF East swap meet and crossed the 700 mark of disks I need to purge. (Anyone have a quick way to erase these? )

 

[jlang]

I use a bulk tape eraser.

 

[FleetwoodMacAndCheese]

I use a bulk tape eraser.

What kind? I have one for cassette tapes but these won't fit through it. I was thinking about making one out of a bunch of HDD magnets but I don't think it will be strong enough.

 

[jlang]

Mine is no name brand. Google bulk tape eraser. look for the ones that you pass over the tape.

 

[Bruce Tomlin]

One that looks like a brick with an AC cord and a switch. Put disk on brick, switch on, spiral brick away from disk, switch off. Get another disk and repeat.

Image search for "radio shack bulk tape eraser".

And don't do this to Zip disks or "128 meg" floppies, I think they have servo tracks or something.

 

[syzygy]

Good thread on that topic here. I ended up with an RS product that works fine for me (erasing only floppies). Note also @vwestlife report in that thread.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

And don't do this to Zip disks or "128 meg" floppies, I think they have servo tracks or something.

At work we used to have a magnetic *hard disk* degausser to definitively destroy customer data that might be on returned appliances. (It's pretty tragic how many expensive SCSI and SAS drives met their maker in that thing.) The magnetic field was so high they came out of it *hot*.

 

[Robbbert]

I have a bulk eraser for VHS tapes, that came from Tandy. I'd guess it could do several disks at once.