Alignment disks, and the creation thereof

[Bryan Pope]

Jules Richardson wrote:
>
> But how do you "maintain" floppy media?
>
> Sure, the machines can be kept going - replacing a chip here and 
> there, or when supplies of those chips have gone, by simulating the 
> device's function in whatever logic is flavour of the period.
>
> But it seems apparent that floppies fail - either through wear or 
> natural deterioration. You could simulate the drive and media (as I 
> mentioned), but then it's not "floppy disk" any more.
>
> I don't think anyone's going to invest the time and money needed to 
> truly preserve floppies intact; that sounds like a lot of expensive 
> analysis into why binders fail, and a lot of expensive research to 
> then fix the problem - a problem that almost nobody in the commercial 
> arena cares about.
>
That is already being done for the Commodore 64 with the .G64 file 
format which is a GCR encoded 1541 disk image.  This copies everything 
including the protection.  See http://c64preservation.com/ .

Cheers,

Bryan
> I suppose someone might magic up a way of creating DIY floppies from 
> scratch in a home lab, but I'm not holding my breath.