Do floppy disks have a shelf life?

[optimistic]

Got some old 1.44MB Floppys that format fine, and looks like it saves data fine, but when I try to open it at another computer it asks me I want to format because its not a valid something something...

So are there expiration dates on these things?

 

[bozo1]

No, they don't expire. What you are running into is the heads on your drive or the other one not being aligned properly which happens over time. You can format and use a disk on a drive that is out of alignment just fine but when you bring it to another machine, it won't read. (and vice versa)

 

[0roo0roo]

i think they do actually. longer you wait the higher chance of corruption

 

[ai42]

Well since it is magnetic storage just random magnetic fields will degrade your data over time.

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: ai42
Well since it is magnetic storage just random magnetic fields will degrade your data over time.

I agree. Also the surrounding enviroment affects the longevity of floppy disks, even CDs and DVDs.

 

[ai42]

I agree. Also the surrounding enviroment affects the longevity of floppy disks, even CDs and DVDs.

Umm CD/DVD media is not magnetic and has almost an infinate lifespan (recordable ones are not, but due to diffrent reasons).

 

[Mday]

I have had a floppy die in a week.

 

[0roo0roo]

well the magnetic medium also slowly degrades. floppies rated lifespans aren't all that hot.

cdr/dvdr rated life spans aren't infinite, they span decades.. thats definetly possible.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub54/5premature_degrade.html


juist magnetic media in general here. shows how delicate the stuff really is. and thats for analog recording, digital is more sensitive to degrading. tiny mistake on audio tape doesn't mean much, flipped bit is corrupt data.