Comments on: [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: Rockin' Kat

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:38:50 +0000

I have a ton of floppies… Over the years I've managed to find a big number of file cabinet style 3.5″ floppy holders… just glancing around this room I have about 19 of them… over half of them are fully loaded. I have more in storage.. but they don't have anything in them.

I also have a 5.25″ floppies for C64, Apple II, and IBM compatables… most of the IBM stuff is HD, but everything else is DD. I've got packs and packs of blanks… as well as several IKEA CD rom shelf boxes full of disks with stuff on them… I use the boxes because they look nice on a shelf, I could never find file cabinet style holders for 5.25′ floppies, and I hate how much wasted shelf space there is with average floppy boxes with flip lids. Always way taller and longer than they need to be for how much they hold.

The newest computer I have with a 5.25″ floppy drive in it is a Pentium II. I can't use 5.25″ floppies on my main computer.. It's a Mac.. but I do have a couple USB 3.5″ floppy drives hooked up to it for certain needs… like when I use one of my Sony Mavicas to take a quick picture to post online…Every other digital camera I buy always ends up with weird problems with no real explanation… with the exception of my Apple QuickTake cameras… but those aren't exactly convenient.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: XCALIBR8

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:12:08 +0000

I personally don't have any 5 1/4″ floppies but my buddy has a ton for his Commodore 64 and 128.

I still have a locking case for my 3 1/2″ floppy disks that have a ton of random dos programs, including emulators and roms from the early beginnings of emulation.

Now I feel old for even knowing what this post is about. I showed my little cousin a 3 1/2″ floppy and he was baffled as to why it useful if it only held 1.44 mb (for all us geeks we know it holds 1.47 mb (base 10) > 1.40 (base 2))

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: Teacheemechanic

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:01:13 +0000

I just found literally thousands of those cleaning out my mom's basement from when I was like 7 and my brother was in his late teens….

hilarious.

Also… that computer is made of wood. Wood, people. that is just..just.. AWESOME!

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: SQLGuru

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:29:00 +0000

I converted most of my old 5 1/4″ disks to 3 1/2″ disks a while back….at least for non-commercial content. I guess it's close to time to convert the 3 1/2″ disks to CD (or maybe I should skip CD and go to DVD?). Either way, I don't actively use either format, but I could if I needed to.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: Moondog

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:51:55 +0000

Awhile back I was looking through Computer Chronicles episodes kept at Archive.org, and there's an episode from 1985 where they interviewed Shugart , and asked him when he thinks the 3.5″ floppy will replaced the 5.25″ disk as the preferred media. Funny thing is he said something along the lines that the 3.5″ will never replace the 5.25″ format, as everyone is using it and no one will want to switch.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: Benj Edwards

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:16:07 +0000

Geoff,

When printing a quote that stretches across multiple paragraphs, it's customary to print another quote at the beginning of each paragraph within the quote — it reminds the reader that they're reading a quotation, despite the break. A closing quotation mark is not required until the end of the quote. So the ad passes the punctuation test.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: Geoff V.

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:13:03 +0000

A tad off topic, but did anyone else notice that there were four open quotes and only one close quote in the ad copy.

Back on topic, I pull out my ][e every couple years to play GATO and other classic games. Emulators can't match the real experience.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: svofski

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:46:14 +0000

Hmm an average file of "what you don't want other people to be able to see" is now probably larger than a single 5,25″ floppy could hold

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: Ben

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:40:05 +0000

Don't use them for any new data anymore. Some time ago (maybe 9 years) I came across a bunch of new 1.2M 5.25″, and I used them to hold things I didn't want other people to be able to see, which was assured because nobody else had 5.25″ anymore (basically, security through obscurity). But that just became too big a PITA, so I gave up.
I also, though, still have a ton of them, almost all 360K with miscellaneous DOS stuff. Don't think I have any Apple II stuff - we were not allowed to keep the disks in school (those things cost money, you know!), and I never had an Apple II of my own.

Comment on [ Retro Scan of the Week ] Shugart Floppy Sandwich by: robert

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:59:35 +0000

Forgot a bit; in between IBM and Shugart Tech., he had a different company whose name escapes me (but did have Shugart in the name) which was bought shortly by some other large company; that Shugart is the one that actually invented the 5.25″ disk. The one in the ad, however, is the one that became Seagate.