Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

It's a small point, but, from the article:

> Today, any information stored only on a floppy disk is essentially gone.

That's totally untrue. You can buy a USB floppy drive on Amazon for $20, and a pack of disks for another $20. I have two 1990s-era Power Macintosh machines with floppy drives sitting on my desk right now, they both work, as do the floppy drives.

And I was able to access some ~15-year-old floppies just a couple of years ago with no trouble.




Yeah, I just accessed data from many ~38 year old floppies just the other day without issue.

Now, do I put any faith in the reality of being able access any of it the following week? Not really.


Old SD cards are similar. They may appear to have all the data you stored on them but actually trying to read that data will kill them.


I use 3.5" floppies that are 40 years old or so pretty much every day.

There isn't really a way to replace them.


I got some data off ~35 year old 5.25" floppies recently. I didn't have high hopes since these floppies are floppy, but they held up well and didn't give me trouble.


What about them makes you unable to buy replacements? Are they some specific brand or design?


Have you got a few million quid to recertify equipment?




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: