inexpensive source for 5.25 floppies?

[+Bikerbob]

Whats your best source for floppies?

Ebay seems pretty expensive.. I can find the odd 3.5 in disk pack for sale for the STs.. but 5.25 are much harder to come by for the 8-bit.

 

Any suggestions?

 

James

[_The Doctor__]

never pay more than .25 to .50 cents a floppy.....brand new sealed.... you can approach ebay sellers in the message system and offer them a reasonable amount, some will work a deal with you. Another avenue is to purchase the mega pile of used disk that some people sell... You never know what gem is in that pile and can get the disks for less than a penny a disk sometimes.... at that price you can sell off what you need and dump failed disks..... just be careful... some people are selling failed non working disks so read the descriptions...

 

that is what I have done since the dawn of electronic commerce....

[Bryan]

Since there are still a couple factories making 5.25" disks, maybe we could consider a group buy at some point to have new affordable diskettes and hopefully get another 20-40 more years of use out of our disk drives.

[+Bikerbob]

thanks Doc, I guess what I am looking for is some disks that I would call NIB.. so that I can use them to test my drives.. All my disks are used 20+ years old.. so no idea if im just not reading old crappy disks.. or not reading disks period.

 

James

[48kRAM]

I've been hoarding all the old 5.25 disks that I always seem to run across cleaning out old offices at work. I would imagine that older University buildings, etc. might be good places to scrounge for disks. I've probably uncovered about 100 or so so far.

[Brentarian]

Since there are still a couple factories making 5.25" disks, maybe we could consider a group buy at some point to have new affordable diskettes and hopefully get another 20-40 more years of use out of our disk drives.

Great idea! Who else manufactures 5.25 floppies besides Athana?

[Frankie]

http://floppydisk.com/5point25.htm

[+orpheuswaking]

The floppydisc.com discs are actually made by athana, they do exactly what was suggested in the thread, bulk buy and then sell them on... A lot of the bulk disc only no sleeve auctions you see on eBay are the same athana discs as well.

[48kRAM]

I've been using only the double density floppies that I've scrounged all these years and they work with my Apple 2c (my 810 is in need of some TLC). Does anyone know if you can use the high density floppies on these older drives? Does the material matter?

 

Thanks

[Brentarian]

No, only SD or DD for the Atari drives.

[+Larry]

No, only SD or DD for the Atari drives.

True. But if you went through the specs of oem's disks, you could actually find a few HD disks that looked like they would work for DD. And vice-versa, too. Worth the risk? No, but always a popular point of interest.

 

-Larry

[+Bikerbob]

So an HD disk cannot just be formated SD or DD?? hmmm ok.. I was not aware.

 

James

[+Bikerbob]

So a little discussion but really no more suggestions.

 

Floppydisk.com seems to be the only one we have so far.

 

DSDD for 5.25 is the max we can do correct? I am going to move most of my stuff to the HD I have on my hosted pc.. and run ATRs etc.. but it would be nice to have a couple of boxes for transfers and those programs that you just want to run from disk.

 

There is a local guy that has 2 boxes of Maxell DSDD I think he is wanting about $15($10US) a box.. I have to drive to get em.. so that puts it up about $2 a disk.. but since no more suggestions are coming .. I think this might be the grab I need to get.

 

James

[Turbo-Torch]

There is a local guy that has 2 boxes of Maxell DSDD I think he is wanting about $15($10US) a box.. I have to drive to get em.. so that puts it up about $2 a disk.. but since no more suggestions are coming .. I think this might be the grab I need to get.

 

Why don't you use eBay?

I just picked up a sealed 10 pack last night for $8.00 including free shipping. Less than $1 a disk delivered to my door.

Whenever I need new disks, that's the route I go and I usually average $7 to $8 a box with shipping.

[Bryan]

So an HD disk cannot just be formated SD or DD?? hmmm ok.. I was not aware.

 

James

The main difference is the Coercivity, or the strength of field required by the formulation of the disk. When you write to HD disks with DD heads, you end up with a weaker track.

[Neo-Rio]

It's kinda nice that there are companies like Athana still making floppy disks.

 

Apparently the US nuclear arsenal controls still depend on 8" floppies

[Bryan]

One other issue I thought of is the track width. When you write to an HD disk with a DD head, you make a wide track that an HD head won't be able to fully erase. This makes the disks noisy/less reliable unless they're bulk erased.

[+Bikerbob]

 

Why don't you use eBay?

I just picked up a sealed 10 pack last night for $8.00 including free shipping. Less than $1 a disk delivered to my door.

Whenever I need new disks, that's the route I go and I usually average $7 to $8 a box with shipping.

 

Because I am in Canada, take a look at the shipping prices.. your $8 from the US.. people would charge me $20 to ship it.

 

The only place I get free shipping from is Hong Kong or China.

[Turbo-Torch]

I assumed you guys would have just as many disks available in your country but after searching Canada only, I see that I'm wrong.

Very little selection and all overpriced.

[pixelmischief]

I just requested a quote from Athana for 500 and 1000 pieces of both 3.5" and 5.25" DSDD disks. Let's see what they say. I'll get what I can for $500 or so. If we anyone is interested in pooling, PM me and I'll manage it.

Edited October 5, 2016 by pixelmischief

[gargoyle]

Let's see what they say.

 

I guess they haven't said anything!.

[Stormtrooper of Death]

I bought 600-700 second hand 5.25 DD floppies for 40 euros last year. All filled with Amiga software. I erased them and put Atari 8bit software on them. 40 euros is not too expensive for 600-700 2nd hand floppies.

[_The Doctor__]

Routinely paying .25 (25 cents) to .50 (50cents) U.S. currency for brand new old stock disks in the States... I almost always do best offer or talk to the seller and work a deal for a private auction.... You must learn to avoid the sharks and fish for good deals.... 40 euros for 700 sounds awesome!

Edited June 6, 2017 by _The Doctor__

[+Nezgar]

 

Because I am in Canada, take a look at the shipping prices.. your $8 from the US.. people would charge me $20 to ship it.

 

The only place I get free shipping from is Hong Kong or China.

 

With you there!! I have so many disks that are borderline OK it was initially challenging restoring my 1050's, as I wasn't sure if problems were disk or drive related. I called every computer shop in Regina (not too many really...) Probably would fare better in larger centres. I eventually found one shop that had an open 10pk box dated 1991 with 8 unused FujiFilm MD2D disks left, and they are fantastic. No noise at all and the magnetic surfaces look glass smooth. Great disks to put the sector copier and happy loaders, 1050 diagnostics, etc on.

 

I also noticed the yuck shipping rates from the states on ebay, making any 5.25 disks really not worth it through that route. Hoping a line on some disks pans out from my brother in Vancouver..

Edited June 6, 2017 by Nezgar

[_The Doctor__]

ebays shipping and fees are a point of ridicule... the more they lose money the more the terapeak estimates, ebay guides, fee structures increase and increase... the end result being stupidly high prices and shipping..... they are trying to become something they never were and since losing the battle and identity crisis are now trying to become the Auto Parts store... haven't seen one ebay add in the past 8 months that wasn't about auto parts.... gave it a shot.. all Chinese stuff it would seem, white metal or rough cast... had to put it on the grinder / drill press to clean it up make it the right diameter etc etc.... just wasn't worth it..... hydraulic motor mounts that aren't filled with proper fluids and on and on.... They were the biggest yard sale flee market on the planet making awesome profit and asked very little for it.... now they wan't it all the choices are slime and everything cost major money... unless it's from China... and that's changing too.....

Edited June 6, 2017 by _The Doctor__