Craig McPherson
01-27-2001, 09:27 PM
Yeah, I know you have a box of old floppies, most of them at least five years old. Drivers for hardware you don't have anymore, ancient games, that copy of Windows 3.1 you plan on screwing around with some time "just for the heck of it", disks with the one-and-only copy of the manuscript that you hope to sell for millions of dollars if you ever find a willing publisher.
Well, that's a lame situation. Floppy disks have a safe, reliable shelf life of around two years -- after that, it's a crapshoot to determine how long they'll survive.
Here's how to get rid of ALL your floppy disks.
STEP 1 - THE WINNOWING
Throw away all the disks you don't need or want. Go through one by one, and be very critical about what you keep and what you don't. Make a game out of it by throwing the disks at the garbage can from across the room and see how many hits you get. Move the garbage can further away and see if you can match or beat your score. While you're doing this, sort the disks you want to keep into piles: if you're absolutely sure you can to keep that copy of Windows for Workgroups, get all the disks of the set and put them in order. If disk 3 of 8 is missing, go ahead and chunk the entire set: it's better that way.
STEP 2 - DISK IMAGES
Now that you've gotten rid of the disks you DON'T want, it's time to get rid of the ones you DO, while simultaniusly transferring them to a more permanent form.
Make a directory somewhere on your system, like, /home/bob/disks
Put the first disk in the drive.
Save an image of it like this:
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/home/bob/disks/win31-01.img
Give the image a descriptive name. With the filename in the example above, you can pretty much tell that we're talking about Windows 3.1, Disk 1.
Do not mount your floppy drive during this process. It should remain unmounted the entire time. We're doing raw disk reads, not filesystem reads
Wait for the process to finish, then remove the disk, and throw it in the trash.
Repeat, with the next disk. Stick it in, make an image like above (be sure to use a different filename, or you'll overwrite the image of the last disk you did, and have to dig it out of the trash and wipe ketchup stains off it), wait for it to finish, and throw it in the trash.
Avoid the temptation to peel labels off and say "I'll use this as a blank disk someday", especially if the disk is more than 2 years old. Chances are it'll be dead by the time you get around to it. Get a box of new blank disks at Wal-Mart and be happy.
When you finish, every floppy disk you own, except any blank disks you might be keeping, will be in the garbage.
STEP 3 - TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE
Be careful when you take the trash bag out of the garbage can. Disks are heavy, and it's likely the bottom will break out if the bag is filled with 500+ disks. Best to carry the entire can to the dumpster or the curb and carefully remove the trash bag there.
STEP 4 - RESTORE DISK IMAGES
Now, what do you do when you need to retrieve one of the disks you made an image of then threw away? That's easy enough.
1. Unmount your floppy drive if it's currently mounted.
2. Put a blank disk in the drive.
3. dd if=/home/bob/disks/win31-01.img of=/dev/fd0
You see it's just like above, but in reverse.
Now you have an exact replica of the disk you threw out weeks, months, or years ago -- whereas the original disk probably would have died of old age by now.
When you're finished with the disk, either blankify it, or throw it in the trash.
OPTIONAL - Now that you have a few hundred disk images, why not burn them onto a CD-R? That way, you can take them anywhere, and one CD-R full of 400 disk images is much easier to tote around that 400 floppy disks, no?
Now you can sleep easily knowing that your important floppies are secure in image form, and those 500 dusty old floppies are off to start a new life as residents of a landfill. (If you're a tree-hugger you could recycle them or something if you wanted. I dunno how. You figure it out if you're so inclined.)
Enjoy!
Well, that's a lame situation. Floppy disks have a safe, reliable shelf life of around two years -- after that, it's a crapshoot to determine how long they'll survive.
Here's how to get rid of ALL your floppy disks.
STEP 1 - THE WINNOWING
Throw away all the disks you don't need or want. Go through one by one, and be very critical about what you keep and what you don't. Make a game out of it by throwing the disks at the garbage can from across the room and see how many hits you get. Move the garbage can further away and see if you can match or beat your score. While you're doing this, sort the disks you want to keep into piles: if you're absolutely sure you can to keep that copy of Windows for Workgroups, get all the disks of the set and put them in order. If disk 3 of 8 is missing, go ahead and chunk the entire set: it's better that way.
STEP 2 - DISK IMAGES
Now that you've gotten rid of the disks you DON'T want, it's time to get rid of the ones you DO, while simultaniusly transferring them to a more permanent form.
Make a directory somewhere on your system, like, /home/bob/disks
Put the first disk in the drive.
Save an image of it like this:
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/home/bob/disks/win31-01.img
Give the image a descriptive name. With the filename in the example above, you can pretty much tell that we're talking about Windows 3.1, Disk 1.
Do not mount your floppy drive during this process. It should remain unmounted the entire time. We're doing raw disk reads, not filesystem reads
Wait for the process to finish, then remove the disk, and throw it in the trash.
Repeat, with the next disk. Stick it in, make an image like above (be sure to use a different filename, or you'll overwrite the image of the last disk you did, and have to dig it out of the trash and wipe ketchup stains off it), wait for it to finish, and throw it in the trash.
Avoid the temptation to peel labels off and say "I'll use this as a blank disk someday", especially if the disk is more than 2 years old. Chances are it'll be dead by the time you get around to it. Get a box of new blank disks at Wal-Mart and be happy.
When you finish, every floppy disk you own, except any blank disks you might be keeping, will be in the garbage.
STEP 3 - TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE
Be careful when you take the trash bag out of the garbage can. Disks are heavy, and it's likely the bottom will break out if the bag is filled with 500+ disks. Best to carry the entire can to the dumpster or the curb and carefully remove the trash bag there.
STEP 4 - RESTORE DISK IMAGES
Now, what do you do when you need to retrieve one of the disks you made an image of then threw away? That's easy enough.
1. Unmount your floppy drive if it's currently mounted.
2. Put a blank disk in the drive.
3. dd if=/home/bob/disks/win31-01.img of=/dev/fd0
You see it's just like above, but in reverse.
Now you have an exact replica of the disk you threw out weeks, months, or years ago -- whereas the original disk probably would have died of old age by now.
When you're finished with the disk, either blankify it, or throw it in the trash.
OPTIONAL - Now that you have a few hundred disk images, why not burn them onto a CD-R? That way, you can take them anywhere, and one CD-R full of 400 disk images is much easier to tote around that 400 floppy disks, no?
Now you can sleep easily knowing that your important floppies are secure in image form, and those 500 dusty old floppies are off to start a new life as residents of a landfill. (If you're a tree-hugger you could recycle them or something if you wanted. I dunno how. You figure it out if you're so inclined.)
Enjoy!