Magnetic Maniac Manages Mangled Memory
Ahh, floppy disks. Handful of items have nostalgia really like a floppy — possibly 3 1⁄2 or 5 1⁄4, depending on which era of hacker you happen to be. (And sure, we listen to you grey-beards, 8-inch floppies were being unquestionably a matter.) The real goodies are not the floppies by themselves, but what they carried, like Wolfenstein 3d, Commander Keen, DOS, or any range of other classics from the earlier. However a bunch of floppy disks these aren’t carrying anything at all any more, as little bit rot finally catches up with them. Even even worse, on some trashed floppies, a structure procedure fails, far too. Undoubtedly, these floppies are destined for the trash, correct?
Perfectly, hold on. [AnotherMaker] learned some thing that may well breathe a minor far more lifetime into these useless disks — magnets! To be specific, he’s applying a Degausser, particularly the Real looking Bulk Tape Eraser, however plenty of time with a potent magnet would most likely perform, far too. Thoroughly take care of the disk, pop it again into the vintage equipment, and there is a good prospect it happily formats. Now all that’s remaining is to figure out why.
Is this an alignment trouble, the place multiple drives have created in somewhat distinctive sites, and the read heads are finding up these errant spots even immediately after the compose head commences to structure? Or perhaps there’s a spot in the disk that is heading negative, and the stronger magnetic area is expected to reset the floppy’s industry. Allow us know your guess, or if you know the answer, fill us in!