[Coco] [Color Computer] a question to those of you with working cocos with floppy discs

[Steven Hirsch]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009, stinger30au wrote:

> how many of you have floppy discs with information that is still
> readable say of original programs from say 1991 or there abouts?

Seriously?  I have Apple II 5.25" and CP/M 8" diskettes that date from the 
late 70s.  Most still read.  The ones that don't experienced a chemical 
breakdown in the binding material.

> is there anyone left on the face of the planet you can buy new 360k
> floppy discs or floppy drives from or it is all second hand stuff??

I don't think you'd want to pay the prices for new 360k floppy drives. 
Anyone who has NOS on these is holding out for commercial buyers that need 
replacements for critical tools (older CNC machinery seems to be the 
favorite).  However, unlike their later 3.5" bretheren, they were largely 
built to last so I would not be too concerned about using a second-hand 
unit.

Here, these are available at Ham Fests and Flea Markets for $1-2 ea (if 
that much).  The 1/2 height units are what you want.

Diskette media is definitely available. Poke around on Google or eBay.

The quality of recent 3.5" drives is so exquisitely p*ss-poor that you 
might as well just take them out of the box and throw 'em into the scrap 
tub.  Just horrible.

Steve


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