Best Practices for Preserving Old Software on Floppy Disks?

[ddavvvviddmille]

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently come across a collection of vintage software on 5.25" and 3.5" floppy disks, and I am looking for advice on how best to preserve them. Some of these disks are over 30 years old,,, and I want to ensure they’re kept in good condition.

What’s the best method for long--term storage: ?? I’ve heard suggestions about keeping them in a cool, dry place,, but are there specific storage containers or environments that work best: ?? Also, any tips on safely transferring the data to more modern formats without risking data loss: ??

I am new to archiving old software,, so I’d really appreciate any insights or resources that could help. I also read this https://blogs.loc.gov/preservation/2021/08/kilobytes-of-cultural-heritage-preserving-collections-on-floppy-disks-cissp/ but couldn't get the solution.

Thanks in advance....!

David Miller

[mrpijey]

For floppy preservation I would suggest do proper scans, and get a kryoflux device or something similar and setup a machine to use it with floppy drives. I have a kryoflux and setup an older machine that has a 5.25" drive as well as a 3.5" and a DVD-ROM which allows me to preserve all common media. We have a lot of kryoflux:ed archive media here.

As for storage, yeah, cool dry places, but in the end those floppies will die on you. Air tight containers are always good, and keep the floppies in a dark place to avoid bleaching out the labels etc.