Are C64 floppies unreliable?

[SEgamer]

When I got my first C64 a few years ago, I got about 20 floppies with it. All of about 2 disks wouldn't read or were corrupted. Top Gun and Quantum Link were the only ones I remember getting to work on that setup.

 

Recently, I got a 128 with a few drives (1541, 1541-II, and a 1571) with also about 20 floppies. Out of all those, even ones that looked to be in good shape, didn't work. Again only Quantum Link worked. (this was a different Quantum Link disk I also got with the 128)

 

I got some MS-DOS disks from the same guy and about half of those work fine, so are C64 formatted floppies more unreliable than the standard 5.25" floppies? Did the company that made the Quantum Link floppies know some mystical way of preserving data on their disks?

[HuckleCat]

It's probably got something to do with how whoever you got the disks from is storing them.

 

I know some people who have C64s that have disks that are 30+ years old and still work fine. I myself have some Apple 2 disks, (ds/dd) same deal.

[cimerians]

Yeah its how you store them. I still have mine from the 1980's and they work fine. I have mine in an enclosed plastic floppy case (made for floppy disks) within their sleeves.

[SEgamer]

The recent ones I got were sitting in a storage unit for years, and before that they must have been in a shed or outside building. Not sure about the ones I got a few years ago, but he must have had them in the garage for years. It's pretty odd though that both Quantum Link disks that I got in both deals still work.

[+20ohm20]

I still have most of the 250+ floppies that I had back in the day for my C64 and only three have gone bad, two of which were original EA diskettes . This is even after not storing them properly and mildly abusing them since they were boxed up in 1989 or 1990 until 2004.

[Shephda]

Find yourself a good disk cleaner, then check the alignment of your drives.

The floppies hold up well over the years, but the drives have issues staying aligned.

 

I conservatively have about 1000 disks that have all held up these 25+ years.

[SEgamer]

Find yourself a good disk cleaner, then check the alignment of your drives.

The floppies hold up well over the years, but the drives have issues staying aligned.

 

I conservatively have about 1000 disks that have all held up these 25+ years.

 

I was wondering if the drives might be suspect. I wouldn't be surprised if they're dirty or need re-aligning, and I'll look up some guides on cleaning and re-aligning the drives.

[marcfrick2112]

I will say that out of my 300 or so disks, I have had perhaps 8 disks go corrupt on me. Even my original of Mail Order Monsters still works.. it's been so well-used that the label text is virtually worn-off, still works fine. All my EA, Activision, and Mastertronic originals work as well...

 

One thing I noticed... I have a 128 system in my attic 'retro room' with about 20 backups of my fave. games. Well, the changes in heat and cold seem to play havoc with some disks.... So, after 1 year of storing disks up there, I already had 2 disks go bad... Yet, those stored with my 'main' 128 system last Quite well...many disks since 1983 or so...

 

..my .02 bits....

 

Marc

Edited October 30, 2011 by marcfrick2112

[Rybags]

IMO not really any worse than Atari 8-bit floppies.

 

The density used is higher, but still it's not nearing the limits of most floppies of the day which were generally 360K or better.

 

The fact that 1541 drives bashed the heads and could drop out of alignment easier than most drives is probably the second biggest factor after storage conditions.

[+frankodragon]

I had problems with 1571 drives as they scratched the magnetic coating off the disks, so I went back to 1541 drives . One way that -might- help with reading disks but keep in mind it's risky is to put a drop of rubbing alcohol on the magnetic surface of the disk, then run through it the drive. There may be tiny particles inside hampering the loading of data. I've tried it with Atari drives and I've had some luck with this. It may work with 1541 drives as well.

[Rybags]

That'll just remove the coating altogether.

 

Best thing with a disk that's to the point of dying is to take it out of the jacket and either put it into a good one sacrificed from another disk or insert it bare into a drive with the cover off.

Then immediately copy the data off it and chuck it out.

[Oge]

They are reliable when writed on a properly aligned FDD. We should talk about brands, howewer: I had some old floppies with mangled/pulverized parts... It was not a good surprise ;(

[SEgamer]

They are reliable when writed on a properly aligned FDD. We should talk about brands, howewer: I had some old floppies with mangled/pulverized parts... It was not a good surprise ;(

 

I forgot to mention that half of these are third party floppies with programs copied to them. The others are the original games or Commodore disk software.

 

I haven't cleaned/re-aligned the drives yet, but did find a couple more disks that work. The copied floppies seem to not work at all, while the original ones seem to keep showing a break error when trying to load.

 

My guess would be the drives though, because the DOS floppies (same storage conditions) I got from the same guy seem to have a much higher success rate of reading just fine on my 286 computer.

[Keatah]

I've never had problems with my Apple II, and only a few issues with my Atari 810. But with the C-64, uggghh! Floppy failures all the time.

[SEgamer]

Well it turns out I was the one failing on this stuff. I'm new to the C128 and thought it would load C64 floppies by just typing the LOAD "*",8,1 command. I thought something might be wrong with my 128 because I kept getting a break error or no file would be found. Also after the break error it wouldn't recognize any commands and would just repeat the command with a question mark after it.

 

So this past weekend I got a working C64 and most of the games worked on that. I went back to my C128 and used the EPYX Fast Loader cart so it would boot to C64 mode. Now all of the original games work! Some copied ones worked too which was a surprise.

[98PaceCar]

If you want to put the 128 into 64 mode without using the fast load cart, just type GO64 when it boots up. It will ask if you are sure and then take you to 64 mode. You can also hold down the left shift key when you turn it on (I believe that's the one).

[krslam]

If you want to put the 128 into 64 mode without using the fast load cart, just type GO64 when it boots up. It will ask if you are sure and then take you to 64 mode. You can also hold down the left shift key when you turn it on (I believe that's the one).

 

No, it's the Commodore (C=) key.

[marcfrick2112]

krslam beat me to it! LOLs!

 

Was gonna add, if ya have a 128, I highly recommend getting a Mach128 cart. Though not as fast as a Super Snapshot, it will fast-load in both 64 and 128 modes. I soldered a switch to mine, to allow flipping between modes...

[98PaceCar]

krslam beat me to it! LOLs!

 

Was gonna add, if ya have a 128, I highly recommend getting a Mach128 cart. Though not as fast as a Super Snapshot, it will fast-load in both 64 and 128 modes. I soldered a switch to mine, to allow flipping between modes...

 

It's been a while since I've had to manually switch mine so I forgot. Brain fart!

 

On the Mach128, I seem to remember mine having a switch on it that would auto force 64 or 128 mode. Was that a later addition?

[marcfrick2112]

krslam beat me to it! LOLs!

 

Was gonna add, if ya have a 128, I highly recommend getting a Mach128 cart. Though not as fast as a Super Snapshot, it will fast-load in both 64 and 128 modes. I soldered a switch to mine, to allow flipping between modes...

 

It's been a while since I've had to manually switch mine so I forgot. Brain fart!

 

On the Mach128, I seem to remember mine having a switch on it that would auto force 64 or 128 mode. Was that a later addition?

 

I think it mat have been a later edition, tho mine still has solder pads for said switch.

[ozma wars]

have approx. 5000 titles on floppy since the Eighties, end of, and not a problem. Only problems have with original games !!!

[epobirs]

Drive alignment can be a big issue. We ran into it a lot at Cinemaware. Some of the copy protection schemes were really abusive of the drives. Of course, this wouldn't have been possible of the firmware were better designed and didn't allow a drive to seek a track outside the range of the format. Slam!