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Lack of write protect tabs

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k2x4b524[

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Jun 13, 2009
Messages
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Location
Tacoma, Washington, USA. Zip code 98404
i've a maybe dumb question, i'm starting to go through my cache of 3.5" 720kb disks "around 1500 of them" and most of the don't have write protect tabs. I paid 10$ for 3 boxes of 500 each, mac and such, but most of the unlabeled ones, have no write protect tabs.. Did i get boned?
 
Not necessarily. Sounds like you picked up some suplus duplicator stock (which is proably why they were cheap). Use an opaque sticky label over the WP holes and you should be fine.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Not necessarily. Sounds like you picked up some suplus duplicator stock (which is proably why they were cheap). Use an opaque sticky label over the WP holes and you should be fine.
Click to expand...

Hi
Most all 3.5 drives use a mechanical sensing, unlike 8 and 5.25 drives.
This means that even a piece of clear tape will work fine.
Dwight
 
Good point, Dwight. And a mechanical sensor requires only one side of the jacket to be covered.

Somewhere here, I have a box of 3M 8" floppies with transparent red write-enable tabs. They don't work on a Qume 8" drive that I have--you have to use opaque ones.
 
Hi
I've found that most of my original write tabs have dried out
adhesive. I've gone to using a small square of foil and magic
mending tape ove it. It seems to hold up at least as well
as the original adhesive.
Dwight
 
Fredbug said:
I find 'QUALITY' tape that is cleanly cut sticks fine. I
also tend to value the data/drive enough to LOOK
at the disk before I insert it.
Click to expand...

I hate electrical tape. In another life, I used many rolls of Slipknot Grey (I think it's called Premium 111 now), which was probably considered to be about as premium as you could get. After a couple of years, when I'd revisit connections, they were always a sloppy sticky mess where the adhesive had crept everywhere. I'd never use the stuff anywhere near a disk drive.

Don't get me wrong--vinyl tape was a great improvement over the combination of rubber and friction tape (although the rubber tape probably lasts longer), but there's a place for everything.
 
i'm thinking about getting some epoxy putty and putting painters tape on one side of the hole, then filling it in, once the epoxy is hardened and dry, peeling the tape off. it's tedious, but that way i can do a batch of about 20 or 30 disks, more if needed
 
k2x4b524[ said:
i'm thinking about getting some epoxy putty and putting painters tape on one side of the hole, then filling it in, once the epoxy is hardened and dry, peeling the tape off. it's tedious, but that way i can do a batch of about 20 or 30 disks, more if needed
Click to expand...
I find the whole tape thing a bit tedious. I never used it with the 5.25 disks. What I did was simply install a switch on the front of my drive provide that function. It's just a matter of two wires so not a lot of skill needed here. To me that's how it should be anyway. That way you can't write to _any_ disk unless you put it in that mode so it's generally safer. This fix is certainly a lot quicker and easier than using epoxy!
 
Ole Juul said:
I find the whole tape thing a bit tedious. I never used it with the 5.25 disks. What I did was simply install a switch on the front of my drive provide that function. It's just a matter of two wires so not a lot of skill needed here. To me that's how it should be anyway. That way you can't write to _any_ disk unless you put it in that mode so it's generally safer. This fix is certainly a lot quicker and easier than using epoxy!
Click to expand...

And you don't run the risk of solidifying the disk media inside.
 
Ole Juul said:
What I did was simply install a switch on the front of my drive provide that function. It's just a matter of two wires so not a lot of skill needed here. To me that's how it should be anyway. That way you can't write to _any_ disk unless you put it in that mode so it's generally safer.
Click to expand...
Only problem with that would be that it's then easier to inadvertently scribble on original disks which have the WP tab completely removed. Not that anyone works with original media, of course, only ever with backup copies... ;-)
 
k2x4b524[ said:
ok, so what i should probably do then is get a micro-toggle on off switch, and rig the write protect button on one or two of my 3.5 floppy drives then?
Click to expand...
Use a double-pole switch, add an LED and a resistor and you've got the beginnings of a blinkenlights front panel ;-)

I also have about a thousand 5.25HD disks with no WP notch; I do have and use a notching tool, but I also use a switch since that lets me create write-protected master disks.
 
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