Post #2550728
2026-05-02 16:37 UTC
@mia@tearoom.tearmoon.com The Acorn Archimedes I restored recently had several 3½" discs with it that gave me trouble but that was mould rather than damage or delamination. They were mainly copies so I just squirted some isopropyl onto the magnetic surface and spun the discs. Don't try that with anything rare/valuable though.
About 15 years ago I bought multiple of the best 'new' floppy drives I could find in all formats, so at least I don't have to worry about them.
Replies (1)
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@mia@tearoom.tearmoon.com 2026-05-02 17:03
@geoffl@mastodon.me.uk oh, I'm sure 720 KB ones would have been fine, but these were all 1.44 MB HD stuff… I still find it somewhat funny that for 5¼", IBM PC and compatibles are locked into 40/80 track dichotomy of incompatibility. My hand-made PC uses a TEAC FD-55FR and you cannot stick this drive in a PC because it does 80 tracks, but a typical HD PC drive will still read and even write (though not advised due to RPM) DS/DD 80-track diskettes from that PC, and if they're MSX-DOS formatted, DOS and Windows will read it fine. But for imaging purposes I got a TEAC FD-55GFR and added a tiny flip switch for RPM selection ahaha…