jbailey: (Default)
jbailey ([personal profile] jbailey) wrote2007-12-23 10:08 pm

Cleaning up

I just threw out a 720k floppy disk this evening. While I don't know for this one in particular, but I remember that the old 5 1/4" Single sided, single density floppies used to have a lifetime warranty. I remember wondering at the ripe of age of 6 or whatever I was whether or not bringing the thing in and saying "It's dead" would get them to tell me that clearly the lifetime had passed.

Especially now - Who knows what happened to Memorex? (Wikipedia tells me it got bought and that they still sell media) I'm sure their customer service department would love to get a call about an SSSD floppy being dead. I probably have one in one of these boxes, I'm such a packrat.

[identity profile] malpingu.livejournal.com 2007-12-24 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
5 & 1/4"? I remember the luxury of the 8" floppy after carrying around all those punch cards! ;-)

(Anonymous) 2007-12-24 01:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I still have a few boxes of 3M 8 inch single side single density (720K) with the foil wrapping untouched. Maybe I´ll try to take them back to the store to get a refund... could be fun having a discussion with one of the young fellows at the counter who´s never seen a floppy disk in his life :)

[identity profile] tonyyarusso.livejournal.com 2007-12-26 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
Memorex was indeed bought, by Imation, whose world headquarters are a just a few miles from my house. Imation is a spin-off company from 3M corporation, as their electronic media division seemed to make more sense as a separate company. In addition to the Memorex acquisition, they also for a time housed a branch of Kodak (not sure if they still do). Their flash memory "thumb drives" are pretty sweet btw. I doubt the acquisition included a fully backdated transfer of warranty though.

[identity profile] northernflights.livejournal.com 2007-12-28 04:41 pm (UTC)(link)
More to the point, who has the equipment to *prove* that the SSSD floppy is dead? What's the test? Can't format it on an Atari 800 or Apple ][ or 4.77MHz XT?

[identity profile] northernflights.livejournal.com 2007-12-28 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
flashback: 5.25" floppies sold under the name "Elephant Memory Systems" with the "never forgets" tagline.