Do you have 5.25" and 8" floppy disks that are spare, low-quality, degrading, or just generally in bad shape?
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@DosFox Sounds like a worthy challenge! I'd like to give them a go, but just remember that my objective is practice (so don't share them if they are valuable to you). Thanks!
@stepleton I'll see if I still have them!
I'm not terribly attached them - there is a chance I've already thrown them out


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@DosFox @stepleton now I want to see a game with a level in an abandoned Welsh nylon factory

@WillFlux @stepleton there's a good chance you may have already seen it before - it was used as a filming location for doctor who!
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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!
If you get into the "really weird old floppy formats" this may come handy:
GitHub - Datamuseum-DK/FloppyTools: Tools for preservation of floppy disks
Tools for preservation of floppy disks. Contribute to Datamuseum-DK/FloppyTools development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub (github.com)
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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!
@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.
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@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.
@scunneen I'd feel a little foolish turning away blank 8" disks! But I'm in London and it seems like shipping to the UK could be expensive. How many did you get?
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@scunneen I'd feel a little foolish turning away blank 8" disks! But I'm in London and it seems like shipping to the UK could be expensive. How many did you get?
@stepleton Only 4. They come with their original IBM box.
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@WillFlux @stepleton there's a good chance you may have already seen it before - it was used as a filming location for doctor who!
@stepleton ahhh sorry to say I misremembered - unfortunately they're all 3.5"!
Good ol' fallible human memory
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@scunneen I'd feel a little foolish turning away blank 8" disks! But I'm in London and it seems like shipping to the UK could be expensive. How many did you get?
@stepleton It looks like sending the box would be very expensive but if I just sent the disks in a large envelope with little/no padding it would cost $10.
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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!
Sorry, I chopped up my old floppies and made recorder mutes and laptop camera covers.
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@stepleton It looks like sending the box would be very expensive but if I just sent the disks in a large envelope with little/no padding it would cost $10.
@scunneen Well, I guess I won't pass that up
I'll DM you an address... -
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!
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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!
@stepleton might be worth asking https://www.computinghistory.org.uk
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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!
@stepleton I've got a big box of maybe 50 old BBC Micro 5.25" ones somewhere. Is that the kind of thing?
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@stepleton I've got a big box of maybe 50 old BBC Micro 5.25" ones somewhere. Is that the kind of thing?
@GypsumFantastic yes, that's just the kind of thing I'm looking for, especially if they are cheaper, lower-quality disks that are harder to recover! But to stress, I'm looking for disks to use for practice as I develop my technique, so while I would do my best, there's a chance that any data sent my way would be lost forever...
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@GypsumFantastic yes, that's just the kind of thing I'm looking for, especially if they are cheaper, lower-quality disks that are harder to recover! But to stress, I'm looking for disks to use for practice as I develop my technique, so while I would do my best, there's a chance that any data sent my way would be lost forever...
@stepleton Yeah I was going to throw them out. They're all yours. I think a lot of them are originals from the software publishers. I'm in Yorkshire so dropping them off in person isn't really going to happen but postage shouldn't be too much.
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@GypsumFantastic yes, that's just the kind of thing I'm looking for, especially if they are cheaper, lower-quality disks that are harder to recover! But to stress, I'm looking for disks to use for practice as I develop my technique, so while I would do my best, there's a chance that any data sent my way would be lost forever...
@stepleton They're not quite how I remembered. A few originals (education software) but mostly handwritten labels.

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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!
@stepleton If you're not already familiar with it, you should check out the work @makethecatwise is doing on Floppies!
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@stepleton They're not quite how I remembered. A few originals (education software) but mostly handwritten labels.

@GypsumFantastic Now that looks like training material, and quite a few more than 50 disks. I'll DM you an address.
My approach will be to sort them by manufacturer and type and then try them one by one. I'd like to develop some familiarity with the kinds of behaviour to expect from different makes of disk.
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@stepleton If you're not already familiar with it, you should check out the work @makethecatwise is doing on Floppies!
@archivist_Liz @makethecatwise Thanks, we are in touch!
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