formatting a floppy disk for the first time

Also they are more likely to be stored in a less than perfect environment that can reduce their storage - mostly in fact by temperature changes than due magnatic fields.

Buying preformated disks was shunned on.įloppies naturally loose their content (and format is also just content) over time. In 'ye good old days' it was necessary to get best results, as every drive was aligned a bit different. Having said that, it was always a good idea to format a floppy before (re-) using it.

The misconception of a 'high-level' format (or what ever the counterpart would be) of a floppy is easy to receive from the MS Windows concept of 'fast format' - which simply clears FAT and root directory but doesn't really format anything - in conjunction with drive specific 'low level' formating introduced as buzzword with hard disks (*1). Low level formatting won't help with any of this.Īnd then there's the whole issue of possible defects in the drive: Misalignment, dirt on the read-write-head which will make the read signal weaker, and also cause read errors, etc.įirst of all, there is no such thing as not 'low-level' formating of a floppy. If stored improperly, moisture can form between the sleeve and the floppy, which can lead to mold and other things that may detoriate the surface. On the other hand, floppies may go bad for other reasons: The magnetic coating may come off gradually due to friction, and a detoriating sleeve material will speed up this process. If you low-level format them, you'll also refresh the flux pattern that's used for 'administrative' purposes (finding sector start and end), not only the data itself.

The magnetic flux pattern on the floppy disk that is used to store the sector address, the begin and end markers, and the data itself, gets weaker over time. How long they'll stay usable depends on a lot of things. It won't improve 'disk longevity', but it will make the disks usable again.

Formatting a floppy disk for the first time