Post #351700

2026-02-21 13:15 UTC

Do you have 5.25" and 8" floppy disks that are spare, low-quality, degrading, or just generally in bad shape? I'd like to take my floppy disk data recovery game to the next level. I have equipment, but there's no substitute for experience. Therefore I'm looking for loose collections of old floppy disks to practice on. I'm especially interested in working with disks where the binder affixing the media to the donut is starting to fail. I'm in London; will pay shipping; can pick up disks around here as well. Boosts are appreciated!

Replies (22)

@hrw@society.oftrolls.com 2026-02-21 13:33

@stepleton @penguin42 Ah, floppies... I got an unpacked box of 2S/HD ones last week. Will give it to my friend's museum.

Open ##2171811
@jgeorge@oldbytes.space 2026-02-21 13:51

@stepleton I am currently sorting through probably 2,000 1.2MB and 2.4MB (5.25”) diskettes looking for good ones for reuse. I will have plenty of “trash” diskettes as part of the process, you’re welcome to as many as you want when I’m done. Favoriting this post so I can find it again.

Open ##2171813
@Mpwg@hachyderm.io 2026-02-21 14:02

@stepleton Fascinating. I think I’ve thrown my 5 1/4 disks away sometime in the '90s, but it’s great that you are (trying to?) help people who still have data on those disks. 👍🏻

Open ##2171815
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk 2026-02-21 14:02

@stepleton Hmm, I've got a pile of 8" sitting in a box on the top shelf, not sure of the state or content; I'd be happy to send them to a good home. DM me where you want them.

Open ##2171819
@DamonHD@mastodon.social 2026-02-21 14:13

@stepleton Are BBC Micro discs in scope?

Open ##2171820
@elfi@social.pixie.town 2026-02-21 14:59

@stepleton I'll check if my stepdad still has the commodore floppies I inherited from my grandfather

Open ##2171823
@Gustodon@mas.to 2026-02-21 15:26

@stepleton I bet your house smells AMAZING.

Open ##2171828
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot 2026-02-21 16:01

@stepleton Bookmarked. I may well have; and I may well be exceedingly grateful to recover some long lost stuff.

Open ##2171829
@mrose@universeodon.com 2026-02-21 16:10

@stepleton I'm in the U.S. and certain I have some in storage, which I can't easily get to right away. But happy to help if you can wait. LMK

Open ##2171830
@LanceJZ@mastodon.social 2026-02-21 16:34

@stepleton almost all my 3.5" floppies have gone bad. I have like two purchased game disks that still work on my Amiga.

Open ##2171831
@raven667@hachyderm.io 2026-02-21 17:12

@stepleton Thats an interesting offer, I still have boxes of 5 1/4 disks from my youth, mostly copied video games, and I've tried imaging them but only had limited success. It'd be cool if I had some things which weren't in archive.org already which were recoverable. I'm in the USA so I don't know if that is possible. I do have a spreadsheet printout where I captured all the filenames of the game disks from back in the day, but I don't know about the original file, it's probably on one of the data disks ;-)

Open ##2171832
@oz1sej@mastodon.online 2026-02-21 17:29

@stepleton A few years ago, I rescued all my old 5.25" floppies, except one - the one with all the good stuff on 😭

Open ##2171833
@DosFox@tech.lgbt 2026-02-21 17:40

@stepleton oh hang on. I think I still have some 5.25" disks that were recovered from (no joke) an abandoned level of a Welsh nylon factory. I pulled them out of a literal carpet of dust 😅 I'll take a look later if you're interested?

Open ##2171834
@bsdphk@fosstodon.org 2026-02-21 18:23

@stepleton If you get into the "really weird old floppy formats" this may come handy: https://github.com/Datamuseum-DK/FloppyTools

Open ##2171840
@scunneen@mastodon.social 2026-02-21 18:53

@stepleton I don't know if this would be any help, but I just accidentally bought some blank 8" ds/dd disks when I intended to buy 5.25 inch disks. I could send them to you if you're interested.

Open ##2171841
@saustrup@mstdn.dk 2026-02-21 19:03

@stepleton I've got some old CP/M disks for the #GeminiMicrocomputers Galaxy system that may be worthy contentants?

Open ##2171846
@Anne_Delong@musician.social 2026-02-22 00:18

@stepleton Sorry, I chopped up my old floppies and made recorder mutes and laptop camera covers. https://annedelong.timetraces.ca/recorder_mute.htm #floppy

Open ##2171847
@ecoscore@aus.social 2026-02-22 04:32

@stepleton Very niche operation 👏 (Was in magnetic media industry, Gloucestershire, early 1980s 👋)

Open ##2171848
@EventOrg@ruhrpott.social 2026-02-22 05:12

@stepleton @black_bike Maybe he ⬆️ can become an ally for your time-machine-project.

Open ##2171849
@seabass@social.seabass.systems 2026-02-22 09:45

@stepleton Oh I think I have a few! I'll take a look and get back to you if so. Wishing you good luck and much fun with your data recovery exercises :)

Open ##2171850
@aimaz@mstdn.social 2026-02-22 11:22

@stepleton might be worth asking https://www.computinghistory.org.uk

Open ##2171851
@GypsumFantastic@toottoot.eu 2026-02-22 14:21

@stepleton I've got a big box of maybe 50 old BBC Micro 5.25" ones somewhere. Is that the kind of thing?

Open ##2171852