Will S Merkens12:36 PM
I have stuff stored on 8mm tape and it's still readable

Nick Tonn12:36 PM
Well, i still disagree about the theory that drives are made specific for MFM and fail at GCR.

PixelDud12:36 PM
@deʃhipu My guess, SSDs.

Tom Nardi12:36 PM
@deʃhipu Good point, I've had CD-R and DVD-R discs both become unreadable after a few years. Though their are supposedly "archival" burnable discs"

brainsmoke12:37 PM
keep your ssds powered

deʃhipu12:37 PM
clay tablets last for thousands of years

Tom Nardi12:37 PM
Just don't drop them.

deʃhipu12:37 PM
progress, I suppose

Jeff Epler12:37 PM
I think the best thing to do is use any kind of media you keep "live" in your computer, and making sure there are two copies e.g., through mirrored disks, online backups, etc. Data that's not live is data that may be dead

DrG12:38 PM
I have also found 30 year old commodore disks still working fine...and I was amazed...probably 98/100. I have not had as good a record with home made CD/RW

Tom Nardi12:38 PM
@Jeff Epler Well said.

deʃhipu12:39 PM
@Jeff Epler also verify your backups

Will S Merkens12:39 PM
by the end of cdr era the media tend to use poor dye layer but if you have cdr's from the 1980's like I do they used a metallic layer and I can still read them perfectly.

Vincent12:39 PM
But all live data will only be good until SkyNet... 😆

Jeff Epler12:40 PM

https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/reading-floppies-with-an-oscilloscope/

HACKADAY AL WILLIAMS

Reading Floppies With An Oscilloscope

There's a lot of data on magnetic media that will soon be lost forever, as floppies weren't really made to sit in attics and basements for decades and still work. [Chris Evans] and [Phil Pemberton] needed to read some disks that reportedly contained source code for several BBC Micro games, including Repton 3.

Read this on Hackaday

pt12:40 PM
yay!

pt12:40 PM
we're going to bounce now (back to engineering / making / shipping electronics)

Chris12:40 PM
Imagine the oscilloscope data we can now read with MCU! There are still floppy-enabled measurement equipment at the company I'm working at.

Dan Maloney12:41 PM
Thanks everyone! Looking forward to more floppy progress!

Jeff Epler12:41 PM
on the live broadcast we're going to close out with some visual stuff, so jump over to the video if you can

Dan Maloney12:41 PM
Looks like a washing machine motor

deʃhipu12:42 PM
it doubles as a washing machine

deʃhipu12:42 PM
they don't make them like they used to anymore

hamslabs12:43 PM
What is the processor on that board?

limor12:43 PM
on the 8" drive? all Shugart chips :)

pt12:44 PM
we'll be posting all the progress across the socialz and more !

Will S Merkens12:44 PM
what is the model of the sony floppy you are using

Jeff Epler12:44 PM
@Will S Merkens I have a Sony MFP520-1

Vincent12:44 PM
I'm so sad I threw all my old floppies from my parent's house, including many beautifully translucent-neon ones 🥺

limor12:44 PM
Sony MFP920 but we think any sony MFP can do GCR

Will S Merkens12:44 PM
cool

Nick Tonn12:44 PM
The commodore floppy had its own 6502 which was clocked faster than the one in the c64 :)

hamslabs12:44 PM
Thanks y'all.

deʃhipu12:44 PM
thank you

Ferdinand Vogeler12:45 PM
nice one thanks

limor12:45 PM
woo hoo

Jeff Epler12:45 PM
See y'all next hack chat!

Dan Maloney12:45 PM
Thanks Adafruit! Thanks everyone -- transcript coming!

limor12:45 PM
thanks everyone :)

Dan Maloney12:45 PM
And next week:

Dan Maloney12:45 PM

https://hackaday.io/event/183578-pick-and-place-hack-chat

HACKADAY

Pick and Place Hack Chat

Chris Denney will host the Hack Chat on Wednesday, February 9 at noon Pacific. Time zones got you down? Try our handy time zone converter. We in the hacker trade are pretty used to miracles -- we make them all the time.

Read this on Hackaday

DrG12:45 PM
Thanks for hosting Dan

limor12:47 PM
more on GCR/MFM floppy analysis http://cowlark.com/fluxengine/doc/driveresponse.html