You should probably get those 5.25's copied off and archived somewhere
more safe/stable. Those floppies WILL eventually fail and be
unreadable.

I actually think they already are, but it would not hurt to do it again to
be sure.
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MIKE POWELL wrote to GAMGEE <=-

You should probably get those 5.25's copied off and archived somewhere
more safe/stable. Those floppies WILL eventually fail and be
unreadable.

I actually think they already are, but it would not hurt to do it again
to be sure.

Seconded - I found an old floppy with my registered versions of Qedit,
Timed and Global War, and copied them from the 3.5" (remember when they
were called "microfloppies"?) to my hard drive. It took a lot of sector re-reads, but I was able to get most everything copied. Thankfully, the
only sectors that failed contained one of the text files and I was able
to recover most of it.

If I'd waited much longer, I might have lost more.




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On 15 Jan 2026, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...

re-reads, but I was able to get most everything copied. Thankfully, the only sectors that failed contained one of the text files and I was able
to recover most of it.

eek. i just had to do this recently too. on linux ddrescue worked pretty well

i occasionally get stuff from eBay.. things i wished i had back in the day. thankfully most of it has already been imaged to the internet, but it does feel weird saving a disk you know is bad.. at least if you get one good rip out of it you can pretend they're good if you never touch them again ;)

why would you want to do this? no idea.. i suppose it's like the people who pirate games and then buy them years later on steam. *shrug*

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Re: Re: Thin Client Pc To Run
By: poindexter FORTRAN to MIKE POWELL on Thu Jan 15 2026 08:15 am

Seconded - I found an old floppy with my registered versions of Qedit, Timed and Global War, and copied them from the 3.5" (remember when they were called "microfloppies"?) to my hard drive.

I don't recall hearing anyone call them "microfloppies". But it seems there is some confusion about their name, especially today as most people haven't used them in a while - I've seen some posts online where people try to say the 3.5" discs weren't floppy disks because they were hard/rigid.. I think those people might be people too young to have used them though.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: Thin Client Pc To Run
By: poindexter FORTRAN to MIKE POWELL on Thu Jan 15 2026 08:15 am

Seconded - I found an old floppy with my registered versions of Qedit,
Timed and Global War, and copied them from the 3.5" (remember when they
were called "microfloppies"?) to my hard drive. It took a lot of sector re-reads, but I was able to get most everything copied. Thankfully, the
only sectors that failed contained one of the text files and I was able
to recover most of it.

Funny thing... my 5.25" disks are MUCH more reliable than the 3.5" ones.

---
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Re: Re: Thin Client Pc To Run
By: Bf2k+ to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Jan 15 2026 05:41 pm

a lot of sector re-reads, but I was able to get most everything
copied. Thankfully, the only sectors that failed contained one of
the text files and I was able to recover most of it.

Funny thing... my 5.25" disks are MUCH more reliable than the 3.5"
ones.

i think that's a universal truth. i never had a bad 5.25 disk. i've had
many 3.5's.

i think they make older stuff more sturdy and reliable and then they work on making it as cheap as possible and still be functional.
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Re: Re: Thin Client Pc To Run
By: Nightfox to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Jan 15 2026 11:48 am

I don't recall hearing anyone call them "microfloppies". But it seems there is some confusion about their name, especially today as most people haven't used them in a while - I've seen some posts online where people try to say the 3.5" discs weren't floppy disks because they were hard/rigid.. I think those people might be people too young to have used them though.

Yep, those of us that lived in that era know them as 3.5 floppies, if you take the hard casing off it will still flop aroound :)

... Back-up not found (A)bort, (R)etry, (P)anic

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On 15 Jan 2026, Nightfox said the following...

Re: Re: Thin Client Pc To Run
By: poindexter FORTRAN to MIKE POWELL on Thu Jan 15 2026 08:15 am

Seconded - I found an old floppy with my registered versions of Qedit Timed and Global War, and copied them from the 3.5" (remember when th were called "microfloppies"?) to my hard drive.

I don't recall hearing anyone call them "microfloppies". But it seems there is some confusion about their name, especially today as most
people haven't used them in a while - I've seen some posts online where people try to say the 3.5" discs weren't floppy disks because they were hard/rigid.. I think those people might be people too young to have
used them though.

http://floppy.museum/35inch.htm

it'd be interesting if it were possible to get logs from that Microfloppy Industry Committee .. see if they debated ditching the word "floppy" entirely. maybe they though computers were already confusing enough for people and didn't want to add even more lingo. (or confuse hard disks with "regular disks" or something)

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On 15 Jan 2026, Bf2k+ said the following...

Funny thing... my 5.25" disks are MUCH more reliable than the 3.5" ones.

this isn't quite fair. the companies manufacturing them were in their absolute peak and nearly every disk was perfect in every way. early production 3.5" disks were very similar. 3.5" was allowed to both degrade in quality and prestige over time.. there wasn't incentive to make the same quality and they started including junk like plastic shudders

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fusion wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

i occasionally get stuff from eBay.. things i wished i had back in the day.

What's the point of growing older if you can't buy the things you
couldn't afford as a child?




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Nightfox wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

I don't recall hearing anyone call them "microfloppies". But it seems there is some confusion about their name, especially today as most
people haven't used them in a while - I've seen some posts online where people try to say the 3.5" discs weren't floppy disks because they were hard/rigid.. I think those people might be people too young to have
used them though.

8 inch floppy disks were floppies. 5 1/4" disks were mini-floppies. 3
1/2" disks were micro-floppies, if memory serves. This would have been
before the IBM PC, when people referred to PC-sized computers as
"Microcomputers".

At least, that's what you'll hear on Computer Chronicles. The suited
guests on the show were from corporate, LAN-based companies, usually,
might have been more marketing driven than colloquial.





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Re: Re: Thin Client Pc To Run
By: poindexter FORTRAN to fusion on Fri Jan 16 2026 08:16 am

fusion wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

i occasionally get stuff from eBay.. things i wished i had back in the day.

What's the point of growing older if you can't buy the things you
couldn't afford as a child?

Hear, Hear, I second that motion!

LW
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Re: Re: Thin Client Pc To Run
By: fusion to Bf2k+ on Fri Jan 16 2026 09:16:00

The companies manufacturing them were in their absolute peak and nearly every disk was perfect in every way.

Maybe in your corner of the world, but over here disks failed. Kodak was the worst brand I dealt with. Virtually every box had at least a couple bad disks. Ironically, the no-name, sleeve-less disks I'd get at Micro Center had better success rates.

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