The Ubiquitous & Fickle Amiga Floppy!

[CritAnime]

I have had to throw loads of floppies away as they refused to work. And this is after trying them numerous times. Most failed to load at all a couple worked for a little while then refused to load when trying to load a second level for example.

Much like my c64 tapes age and environmental conditions get the better of them eventually.

[danbeaver]

The floppy drives can be cleaned and aligned at home, although the ability of the heads to read and write may go bad.

The floppies themselves are not affected by household magnetic fields, but over time the magnetic coating becomes less adherent to the plastic disk, with double density faring the worse than high density.

[k4lmp]

I had one just yesterday, which was new (NOS) I guess, that I had put data on, in the last month.  Put it in the drive, UNREADABLE.  Did a format, put the data back, it is fine.  I just wonder how long it will last this time.  I may look at one of the virtual floppies when funds are available.  They look complicated, though.

[danbeaver]

Check the floppy box for the date of manufacture. If it is greater than ten years start anticipating problems. Disks exposed to prolong heat and cold (garage) will fare much more poorly.