FDS disk storage

[jimhmphry]

are those old floppy disk storage boxes the right size? if they are can u still keep your games in there plastic cases

[Trium Shockwave]

That's a good question. I wish I still had a floppy disk box to try ^^;

Whatever you use to store your FDS disks, they should be at least in their wax paper sleeve, and preferably in the hard case too. Why didn't Nintendo put shutters on them? How expensive could it be?

[Medisinyl]

I think one of the FDS games I sold had a shutter...  So some of them may have had them.

EDIT:  Did a search..the blue disks have shutters it looks like (my Tokimeki High School was blue)

[JC]

The blue and gold disks have shutters, only the blue "disk fax" and gold tournament prize disks -- for the security of the saved scores, I'd think. The yellow carts never have a shutter, though some yellow pirates included them.

I've stored some disks in 3.5" diskette binder sheets. They also fit nicely into 3.5" diskette hard plastic cases, which are really just substitutes for the plastic cases they come in but more secure and less likely to break because of the softer plastic.

[nensondubois]

I did a quick search but I couldn't find the topic I thought existed. Anyway

I recently bought a bunch of FDS disks and was wondering what environment would be the best place to store them from demagnetization, etc (A safe and a vacuum sealed bag is ridiculously impractical and I know.).

[nintendodork]

I just keep mine in their plastic cases when I'm not using them and keep them away from magnetized stuff in my room.

[ericj]

I keep mine in boxes away from speakers, TVs, electronic devices, sunlight, moisture, and temperature fluctuations (not near a window, heating vent, or A/C).

[nensondubois]

Temperature constantly fluctuates year round, how can I possibly thwart that problem? I'll keep them in their original cases in a box away from the rest of the elements like TVs, speakers, sunlight, etc. How reliable are the disks themselves? More reliable than a standard floppy disk after repeated usage?

[ericj]

I haven't had any go bad after over two years; many of my disks have been used multiple times and are probably over 20 years old.

I think it's a good idea to have backups of your favorites if you know how to copy/write disks, that way you can rewrite them if they go bad.

[nensondubois]

I assuming that unopened disks (My Falsion and Aishe no Nicole) will last approximately forever unless subject to magnets.

[nintendodork]

Not forever by a long shot.  They will deteriorate eventually.

[nensondubois]

heh, forever was an exaggeration of a much longer time then opened disks.

[Epicenter]

Disks always degrade over time. That said, I have only ONE FDS disk that doesn't work, and since it came that way used from a store that sells lots of re-written FDS disks (Super Potato), it may have just been a botched writing job. My oldest known-not-rewritten disks are SMB2 (J) and Doki Doki Panic which I got sealed a year ago; still work gorgeously. At any rate, it's not a terribly arduous process to rig up an old PC to an FDS drive and re-write the data onto the disk should it become corrupted.

However, if the disk's magnetic film is physically damaged then you're out of luck unless you have the means to repair it. You could open the disk, open a junk disk (say, one of those $0.50 Mahjonng disks, I have one in its case propping up my wobbly computer, hehe), pull out the magnetic disc inside, swap it into the disk shell you're trying to restore, then re-write the FDS image onto it. Just take extreme care not to let any dust get onto the magnetic film. It's not a death sentence for floppies like it is for hard disk platters though-- hell, Nintendo even sold an FDS disk head cleaning kit.