Best 5.25 floppy disk brand

[adamchevy]

I recently became an Atari 800 computer owner with an 810 disk drive. I would like to aquire some blank 5.25 floppy disks to use. I would like to know what floppy disk brands you have had the most success with. I have never used or purchased a floppy drive until now. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

[Justin Payne]

Elephant. It never forgets and neither did I. I also didn't forget how expensive they were and so I couldn't afford them so...they sucked. Never mind.

[Keatah]

The TRS-80 branded disks took extraordinary abuse from me BITD. So did Dyson and Maxell. To a lesser extent, 3M.

[jaybird3rd]

I have a box of Atari-formatted floppies that have been in the family since about 1983, most of them double-notched homemade copies of commercial games with a few data/saves disks mixed in. With very few exceptions, all the disks still work. The brands of floppies in the box (in no particular order) include: Elephant (of course), Verbatim, SKC, Fuji, TDK, Maxell, Burroughs, and Kodak. Given their longevity, I'd say that they're all pretty good brands. Verbatim would probably be my first choice if I were looking to buy new ones, since I've had the most experience with them, and they're still fairly easy to find.

 

The only brands that I can think of that I would NOT recommend, based on my own experience, would be Memorex and Nashua. A disproportionate percentage of those always seemed to go bad on me.

[Bryan]

Most of the disks came from a few manufacturing companies. The main concern is how well the binding agents hold up. Some disks went to crap rather quickly (just like the recording tape fiasco of the '80s). I would say that the brands which haven't had tape problems are the best to buy disks from such as Maxell & TDK. I have a large number of old Kodak and Verbatim disks that also haven't had problems. Verbatim made a disk called Maxlife, I think, and it had a teflon coating over the surface as well (good luck finding them now).

 

The disks I remember as being the worst were Wabash. They were falling apart within a couple years of purchase.

 

A friend of mine who works in the recording business told me that a big part of the problem was the elimination of whale oil in binder (adhesive) manufacturing. The alternate formulations were unpredictable and some of them absorbed moisture from the air until they became soft and gooey.

[adamchevy]

I found a listing on eBay for 54 elephant disks new and shrink wrapped for $49.99. And I thought you were messing with me. Don't see any trs-80 disks, but maxwell md1-d's for the same price. Is about a dollar a piece a good price? Seems kinda high.

[Bryan]

Elephant was a brand name of the Leading Edge company. Is it known who made their disks?

 

Anyway, if I were buying disks I'd probably go for these:

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 371245151073

[adamchevy]

Elephant was a brand name of the Leading Edge company. Is it known who made their disks?

 

Anyway, if I were buying disks I'd probably go for these:

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 371245151073

I made him an offer, I hope he doesn't refuse. Thanks for the find!

[+sm3]

I picked up a stock of these and they have been working great: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221332760116

 

I use an electric bulk eraser on any disks prior to formatting and use: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221691709106

[Bryan]

I made him an offer, I hope he doesn't refuse. Thanks for the find!

No problem. Check this out:

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 161566281322

[adamchevy]

No problem. Check this out:

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 161566281322

That's a few more than I need I think, but I'll make an offer. Thanks!

[dafivehole]

MAXELL

[CrazyChris]

I've had good luck with Verbatim.

[Tickled_Pink]

In my experience it doesn't really matter. Most of the floppies I bought were unbranded. The vast majority have had the same shit on them for 30 years and still work.

 

Of the big-name brands, the only ones I had any real experience of was 3M. No problems there either.

[kenjennings]

The best: BONUS.

 

Remarkably. I thought back in the day that this was a cheap brand. So far, every BONUS disk I used decades ago still looks and works perfect.

 

The worst: Verbatim.

 

So far the Verbatim disks I used decades ago are 5 for 5 for the media scraping clean off the substrate when I tried to read it in an Atari drive now. Pure suckage.

 

 

Some others that I have only one-sies/two-sies: A TDK worked fine. Maxell is 50% -- one type works, the other lost its surface. One Elephant that works ok.

 

 

The commonality I've found so far is that the disks that tend to fail look brown, with little to no surface reflectivity. All the disks that work look very dark brown to black and have shiny surfaces.

[Bryan]

It's weird, because I haven't lost a Verbatim disk. I wonder if there were different batches. I can agree that Bonus disks work, but I hated that big pre-applied label.

[fujidude]

I don't have my stuff anymore to see, but as of the last I used them some years ago, the 3M/Scotch ones held up well. There were others too,m but it wouldn't be fair for me to say since memory is foggy.

[RJ]

My Maxells still hold up to this day, even with doube-notching them. Honestly all my disks still work but I couldnt name all the brands.

[Rybags]

I've found Verbatim to be good all round in all the types thru 5.25, 3.5, CD, DVD.

 

Most of my 5.25 are probably Memorex and can't recall having any trouble or chucking any out, though I've had Memorex DVDs that have been shockers with more than 2 in 50 failing straight up. Though DVDs have only few fab plants and a given brand might have multiple media IDs that carry the same sticker.

Also have some 5.25 Fuji which have stood up well.

 

Really, the low densities used for Atari SD and ED barely pushed most media which is probably why it's got a near 100% retention rate if kept in good conditions for >30 years. It's once you put 720K and beyond onto a 5.25 floppy that the failure rate goes way up.

Similar with 3.5" - the lower 720-880K used by early PC, Mac, ST, Amiga stand up reasonably well but the 1.44 Meg HD ones would often fail in a matter of months.

[Keatah]

Yes that.

 

You know, many of my disks are going on 40 years already. And they are fully functional. All brands. I will agree that bit-density and, additionally, overall drive health has a lot to do with this longevity.

 

In the WaReZ heydays I always did extra PM on my drives (Apple Disk II Shugart mechanism). I regularly used the shop compressor to blast out the dirt. And then I'd use a head-cleaning disk with ample solution applied. I'd also rotate or replace the pressure pad (a $1.00 item) every 6 months. I think you'll agree that was necessary considering how I'd frequently throw them in my RadioFlyer while BMX'ing to those WaReZ conferences.

 

Just recently I did a full diagnostics and conducted a clean-the-contacts and reseat the chips session; on my 2 oldest drives from 1979-1980.. Was it necessary? ehh.. Well it felt good. Everything was in order.

 

This very basic maintenance + good storage habits for the disks were probably bigger factors than which brand of disk, except for maybe the absolute crappiest ones. Nothing could save those I'm sure.

[re-atari]

I've found Verbatim to be good all round in all the types thru 5.25, 3.5, CD, DVD.

 

Most of my 5.25 are probably Memorex and can't recall having any trouble or chucking any out, though I've had Memorex DVDs that have been shockers with more than 2 in 50 failing straight up. Though DVDs have only few fab plants and a given brand might have multiple media IDs that carry the same sticker.

Also have some 5.25 Fuji which have stood up well.

 

Really, the low densities used for Atari SD and ED barely pushed most media which is probably why it's got a near 100% retention rate if kept in good conditions for >30 years. It's once you put 720K and beyond onto a 5.25 floppy that the failure rate goes way up.

Similar with 3.5" - the lower 720-880K used by early PC, Mac, ST, Amiga stand up reasonably well but the 1.44 Meg HD ones would often fail in a matter of months.

I second this. In my A8 days I always used white label (i.e. unbranded) floppy's. Must have been some 300 or so in total. I also had several Verbatim's and Nashua's. I liked Verbatim a lot, very quiet in use. Nashua's made a lot of noise when rotating, as if they were about to seize up, but never did fail on me.

 

Although my floppy's were oficially single sided, I notched all of them to use the backside as well. Only rarely did one fail format or verify. I later on even re-used them on my 286 PC, with a special utility I could format them on 720Kb (80 tracks, 9 sectors, 512 bytes) without any problem. The disks were still readable after 15 years of storage.

 

The 3,5" floppy's I used on my PC's were an entirely different story, though. IIRC 3M and Sony were relatively reliable. But I've had horrorstories where disks couldn't be read anymore when data was written to them immediately after formatting.

 

Thankfully I had a QIC-36 streamer on my PC, that could store a massive 60Mb (that's Mb, not Gb!) on a DC600 tape. It took about 30 minutes to store and verify 60Mb. Hey, I'm talking 1990-1992. Somewhere around 1992 I had the opportunity to buy a (for its day) massive Maxtor 660Mb ESDI harddisk, that took away the need to make room by dumping data on tape. I still have the tapestreamer and its full length controller card in storage, along with a few tapes. It's hard to say goodbye to certain hardware items...

 

re-atari

Edited February 21, 2015 by re-atari

[+Larry]

The best: BONUS.

 

Remarkably. I thought back in the day that this was a cheap brand. So far, every BONUS disk I used decades ago still looks and works perfect.

 

The worst: Verbatim.

 

So far the Verbatim disks I used decades ago are 5 for 5 for the media scraping clean off the substrate when I tried to read it in an Atari drive now. Pure suckage.

 

 

Some others that I have only one-sies/two-sies: A TDK worked fine. Maxell is 50% -- one type works, the other lost its surface. One Elephant that works ok.

 

 

The commonality I've found so far is that the disks that tend to fail look brown, with little to no surface reflectivity. All the disks that work look very dark brown to black and have shiny surfaces.

 

I don't have any Bonus disk boxes around, but weren't they a less expensive line from a "big name" producer of floppies? In fact, I was thinking they were made by Verbatim? That would be ironic if the "lesser brand" was good and the "premium brand" was bad.

 

But anyway, I never had trouble with any brand-name floppy disk. And I do second the accolades for Verbatim with the teflon coating. They were exceptionally smooth, quiet, and durable.

 

-Larry

[+bob1200xl]

Atari disks may not have a re-enforced hub which can cause clamping problems. The disk will work on one drive and not another.

 

The disks from ICD seem to have a very high failure rate - after 20 or 30 years, the oxide scrapes right off.

 

I would expect that disks stored in a warehouse at 130 degrees for 20 years would be more of a risk than those kept in a cooler environment, but no way to tell without trying them. How many disks do you need?

 

Bob

[atx4us]

My vote is for Verbatim. Those diskettes were very dependable for me with the Atari 1050. I also thought they were the quietest. I had some generic brands that sounded like sandpaper rubbing together when the disks were spinning but amazingly they didn't fail. Maxell and JVC were decent but not my top choice.

[Muzz73]

I'll go out on a limb here and say that I had good luck with BASF, Bitbank, Verbatim and 3M. I had many others as well, but those stand out in memory. I abused them by the dozens on 8-bit Ataris, Apple ][s, Commodores, etc. I seem to remember the Bitbank and BASF disks being particularly sturdy.