How long do floppies and CDs last?

[drogosan]

I'm thinking of starting an Amiga/Atari ST/PC collection but am cautious about buying corrupt floppy disks and CDs. Supposing I buy an original copy of AD&D Death Knights of Krynn, what are the chances that after 20 years the floppy disks still work? I remember reading somewhere that 30% of all floppy disks become "corrupt" after a year, but am wondering about other people's experiences?

I suppose CDs are more resilient.

[Bojay1997]

I'm thinking of starting an Amiga/Atari ST/PC collection but am cautious about buying corrupt floppy disks and CDs. Supposing I buy an original copy of AD&D Death Knights of Krynn, what are the chances that after 20 years the floppy disks still work? I remember reading somewhere that 30% of all floppy disks become "corrupt" after a year, but am wondering about other people's experiences?

I suppose CDs are more resilient.

Depends on how they have been stored. I would say that after collecting around 400 boxed mint or sealed Amiga and ST floppy games over the past three years, I have found maybe 10-15% of the discs are bad. Although 3.5" discs are more dense, they also have a pretty solid outer shell and seem to be much more durable than 5.25" discs I have collected over the years. Of course, I haven't played every game all the way through, so there could be hidden errors later on, but I think generally as long as someone cared for them and kept them relatively cool and in a dry, dust free environment, they should be ok for the most part. A lot of sellers will actually test the games before selling them, so that can really cut down on problems, although it adds a price premium and doesn't protect you when you buy from swaps, thrifts or sealed games.

[Ro-J]

This topic comes up quite a bit, do a search for "bitrot" or similar and you'll find a number of threads.

Experts claim CD's will last 50-100+ years if stored correctly. CD-R\RW's should also last a long time although I've had some burns from the mid 90's deteriorate on me.

Floppy Disks are not certified for long term archival storage (3+ years). With proper storage, however, they can last longer.

Reference:PC Alamode Magazine (http://www.alamopc.org/pcalamode/features/F20010903.shtml).

[tom]

You know, I have many A8 and C64 games on floppy and also many on cassette, dating way back to early/middle 80s, and they still work fine. I have CDs from PSX, which are already stopped working.
I have music cassette tapes from 1972 onwards and they still work perfectly, I have DVDs (movies), which already stopped working.
So make up your own mind, don't listen to what the so-called experts say.

[Sniderman]

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=122502&highlight=bitrot

Here's a thread where it was discussed at length. Might find some answers in there.

[robotriot]

I also collect for Amiga, and my experiences with floppies are very bad. However, I'm content with owning the original complete game, I'm not going to play from the original floppies anyway but use backup copies off the internet. So for me, it's not really an issue.

[Ze_ro]

Although 3.5" discs are more dense, they also have a pretty solid outer shell and seem to be much more durable than 5.25" discs I have collected over the years.
My experience is the exact opposite. I'd say at least 85% of my C64 disks (5.25") work fine, while my 3.5" Amiga disks are far below that percentage. Though I'm not sure what to attribute that to (maybe I was buying better disks in the C64 days, who knows).

In any case, I'd at least be careful about what you buy. Collecting is fine, but I wouldn't recommend spending hundreds on something that may be unreadable.

--Zero

[drogosan]

Thanks guys. I might stick to collecting for my PS1 and PS2 for the time being...

[A Black Falcon]

And the more often the disk was used, the more likely it is to corrupt... ones that were just sitting in the box can go bad too, though. I've got a bunch of floppy disks for my DOS games, I wonder if any of those disks have gone bad while sitting in storage in the basement or closet... I remember a couple games coming with bad disks, which had to be returned or something like that, but oddly enough I don't know if many of those others have gone bad. But of course, they've only been used a few times in the many years I've owned them, to install onto several different computers and then never again. Yes, hard drives are nice... not perfectly reliable, but better than floppies for sure.

Other disks though, like the ones we regularly put into systems and used, or Zip Disks... those things went bad all the time. So I've always thought that use had something to do with it.

So yeah, even if I had an interest sometime in getting old computers, I don't know if I would, given that those systems didn't use hard drives for the most part and relying on just floppies is very hit-or-miss...


I also collect for Amiga, and my experiences with floppies are very bad. However, I'm content with owning the original complete game, I'm not going to play from the original floppies anyway but use backup copies off the internet. So for me, it's not really an issue.

That's the best approach, for sure.

... Oh, on a related note, what's the best way of running 5.25" PC disks now? I have some, and while almost all are duplicates of things that also came on 3.5", a few are only on the large disks, and it'd be nice to be able to use them again. Our only computer with one of those drives (our first one, a Gateway 386) failed years ago, disk drives included, and my parents got rid of it at some point in this past decade. (:(). I don't know if there'd be any way of getting my newer Vista PC to see a 5.25" drive, but my old WinME machine, at least?

[ubersaurus]

I want to say that Windows will just read it like any floppy drive, without any thought as to the size of the disks. Could be wrong, though.

[Jorpho]

You know, I have many A8 and C64 games on floppy and also many on cassette, dating way back to early/middle 80s, and they still work fine. I have CDs from PSX, which are already stopped working.
I have music cassette tapes from 1972 onwards and they still work perfectly, I have DVDs (movies), which already stopped working.
So make up your own mind, don't listen to what the so-called experts say.I don't know about how programs are stored on cassette, but your music tapes could have easily degraded in ways that the unaided human ear cannot discern.


... Oh, on a related note, what's the best way of running 5.25" PC disks now? I have some, and while almost all are duplicates of things that also came on 3.5", a few are only on the large disks, and it'd be nice to be able to use them again. Our only computer with one of those drives (our first one, a Gateway 386) failed years ago, disk drives included, and my parents got rid of it at some point in this past decade. (:(). I don't know if there'd be any way of getting my newer Vista PC to see a 5.25" drive, but my old WinME machine, at least?There's no way to know without trying. I've heard that even newer versions of Windows will recognize 5.25" drives, but there seems to be a lack of consensus. The PC's BIOS has to support it too.

[jb143]

I want to say that Windows will just read it like any floppy drive, without any thought as to the size of the disks. Could be wrong, though.

That'd be my guess as well though I havn't tried it either. Windows(or is it the BIOS) does still reserve the B drive after all, though I doubt they still have a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive in mind.