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Where can I get some good inexpensive 3.5" Floppy disks?

VERAULT

VERAULT

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Jan 30, 2012
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Location
Connecticut, USA
So I am pretty all set with 5.25" floppy disks. I have hundreds and hundreds.. I am doing pretty well with 8" floppy disks if you can believe that too. The problem is I am running out of working 3.5" floppy disks. In the past 2 years I have thrown out many which were just moldy or dirty or just couldnt hold data.

Where can I buy a large amount without breaking the bank? I dont really care if they are 1.44MB or 720KB as long as they are reliable.

I have tried buying large batches on ebay but the prices have risen plenty and there are usually a fair amount bad in the bunch.

Where do you guys get them?
 
I have a substantial amount of DD 3.5" disks here. Haven't checked them for a while but they were in a sealed container.
I am currently working on reactivating my old Amiga 1200 and some QL's.
Testing them has been a bit of a rough deal since windows 10 won't let me use my old IDE FDD.
The Amiga KB has failed and I am waiting for a replacement rubber mat.
The QL's are ailing on RAM, still looking for affordable RAM chips for them.
When I get an USB FDD working I could give you tested disks. Until then, it's Russian roulette if I send them to you.
Perhaps we can trade? =)
Let me know.

Regards,
Mac
 
I got lucky at goodwill years ago, 99 cents for 25 pack boxes. I stocked up crazy when I seen those! Sadly office depot brand. Goodwill used to be a good place, not so much anymore. Still good for writable cds/dvds though! I keep an eye on the goodwill auctions,

How many were you looking for?
 
I have hundreds of blank cds and Dvds. They were just throwing them away at work years ago so I took them.
 
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HD 3.5" floppies are exceptionally unreliable, in my experience. I've not found a source of reliable media, for those. I have thrown away a vast number of them.

DD 3.5" media has been mostly fine, and of course 5.25" media, though I rarely use 1.2MB 5.25" disks.

- Alex
 
As floppy disk are no longer manufactured, I looked into if there was a way to restore existing ones, or maybe make my own floppy platters with a new iron-oxide coating, but got absolutely nowhere - I'm sure the process is probably not something an amateur could do at home. Shame as there are so many duff floppies in the world, be great if you could just restore the iron-oxide coating... Anyone heard of anyone doing that?
 
ajacocks said:
Not only expansive, but I bought some new sealed Sony 3.5" HD floppies last year, and they were all bad.

- Alex
Click to expand...
Sealed doesnt mean much. I have two sealed Sony 100 pack (10 boxes of 10 disks - 200 total!!!:cry:) that I got in a pickup stored in a basement. No mold no dirt. The shrink wrap on every box is sealed. Yet every disk is bad.... Brand new and worthless.. you never know.

I still remember going to computer fairs in the mid 90's where they have blocks of floppy disks (25? 50?) for not very much. I should have bought more. Doesnt matter though.. Someone would eventually throw out all my old floppies in the early 2000's...
 
I've gotten pretty good at cleaning crap covered 5.25" disks. Dawn dish washing detergent for the win.

But 3.5" disks are much harder to clean and get dry after cleaning. On some nasty 3.5" disks I was trying to recover, I had to break the case open to clean the cookies properly. Of course, the 3.5" cookies are much more fragile to any small scratches or dents. Another problem is the adhesive they use to hold the metal hubs on is slowly degrading. Once they come off and are re-attached it is almost impossible to read existing data - although they can be reformatted.

Unfortunately anything that comes up on eBay or wherever has probably been sitting in a garage, attic, or storage locker for many years collecting smoke/pollution/dust residue on the cookie surfaces. Even if they are in an unopened box.

Then there the cheap 3.5" disks that were crap when they were new. Many years back I bought a box of "viking" brand disks off of eBeh. Cookies were perfectly good and everything worked great. Until I put them in one particular drive and they started ripping to shreds. Turns out there is a little plastic manufacturing "bump" inside the disk jacket that normally isn't a problem, but this particular drive put a bit of pressure on that spot causing the bump to come in contact with the cookie. Phuk.

So, I think that going forwards, incredibly careful cleaning and meticulous testing will be the only way to get anything reliable.
 
In my experience, 3.5" floppies from the mid 90s are the most reliable. Really the only place is ebay. I have had good luck with Maxell, so I search for the style box that I know is from the correct period. $1/disk for DD and $0.50/disk for HD is about the best price I have seen for NOS.

Towards the end of production (mid 2000s?) 3.5" floppies were really crappy. Around 2004 I bought 3 boxes of 100 from OfficeMax and they were almost all bad. Then I went online and bought a couple hundred new Imation disks. Also crap.
 
I dont really care about NOS to be honest. Used is fine. These things were meant to be written to many times. Handwritten labels dont bother me as I can slap another label on it.
 
VERAULT said:
Sealed doesnt mean much. I have two sealed Sony 100 pack (10 boxes of 10 disks - 200 total!!!:cry:) that I got in a pickup stored in a basement. No mold no dirt. The shrink wrap on every box is sealed. Yet every disk is bad.... Brand new and worthless.. you never know.

[...]
Click to expand...
Serious? Sony is and was a big brand. Were they manufactured badly at the time? Or did they go bad over time in the packaging?
 
No the point was HOW YOU STORE THEM makes all the difference. These WERE great disks but they were stored somewhere no climate controlled. So they are dead.
 
This makes me glad that I took up Chuck(G) on his offered DSDD disks a few years ago. I did pick up a number of Staples and Memorex branded high density disks during the clearance sales a decade ago. I have been pleasantly surprised by how every disk has worked though given the flimsy construction of the 2010 era shells I doubt those disks would sustain full time use.
 
I know the 2000's ERA floppies were trash. They were trash when they were new so its no surprise. All my original CD's and DVD's I burned are stopping from reading even without any scratches.. Thats probably he worst blow,,

But again. I need 3.5" disks and dozens of them.
 
VERAULT said:
I dont really care about NOS to be honest. Used is fine. These things were meant to be written to many times. Handwritten labels dont bother me as I can slap another label on it.
Click to expand...
floppydisk.com sells used ("recycled") disks 50 for $25. Not a great price for used disks but they are all tested.
 
I have a couple sealed brand new boxes of 25 i be willing to trade/sell away, you need to tell me how many disks you need lol.
 
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