Question for the tech types

[Bonez]

I go to turn on my computer on this morning, and there's a note on my desk. Someone knocked over a glass of juice, and while luckily the keyboard, speakers, modem and router all got off unscathed, one of my floppy discs got a little wet. It looks like the label took the full brunt of it, but when I look at the back, I can see a little moisture inside. Is this thing shot, or if it's left to dry for a few days do you think I can salvage what was saved on it? I had a 35+ page word document I've been working on since October...this is killing me. I've been meaning to back it up for some time now, but every time I would go to do it something would come up and I'd have to leave it for a later time...I'm really kicking myself now. :(

[maitee1]

Do they still make floppies? J/K man. I don't think you would have to wait a couple of days. But depending on the type of juice spilled could make the difference in being read or rendered useless. And a last bit o'advice: invest in a memory stick.

Good luck

[Sarge51]

Depends really. I am sure floppy disks are really fragile. But I assume if you cleaned the majority of it and dried it out with a blow dryer there's a chance it could work.

[IslandBoy91]

A blow drier may warp the disc inside and may make it unreadable. I would (if you have one) put it near a de-humidifier for a day or so, or at least put it in a dry room, out of direct sunlight (just to be safe ;) )
And oh yeah, get a pen drive, man :).

[Bonez]

Well, I called Staples...they said since it runs off of magnets essentially there's not too much that can be damaged. I'm gonna let it dry for a day or two so it doesn't get the computer all juicy too. I only want to use it for about two minutes, I hope that's not too much to ask.

I've been meaning to get a USB drive for a while now, but the unemployment train rolled into town not that long ago and you gotta cut back on things you don't really need, but I've learned my lesson. The next time I'm in Staples, I'm totally picking one up.

[Phane7]

I would make sure there's no sticky residue on it first, you could ruin your floppy drive. Then again, floppy drives are cheap.

[Bonez]

Well, it's shot...when it tried to load it just made this horrible clunking sound (I'm assuming that it was angry because the slide was sliding very slowly) and said it failed. So there goes six months of work. :mad:

[Bakkster]

Wipe it down with alcohol to remove the residue, let it dry, then try again. I think you can still salvage this.

[Bonez]

I dunno...on top of the slide's movement being slowed down, it seems that the hub has bonded itself to the casing...it just won't move. I guess that's what the real problem is...the disc can't spin, so it's not being read.

I think the only way I could salvage it is if I can find someone trained in computers to take it apart and clean it...but I still think it's an incredibly long shot. Floppy discs don't like being handled.

[HMXDungHeaver]

Here's a 1GB flash drive for $10.

You should be able to afford that and it has plenty of room for what you need.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211261

[maitee1]

I dunno...on top of the slide's movement being slowed down, it seems that the hub has bonded itself to the casing...it just won't move. I guess that's what the real problem is...the disc can't spin, so it's not being read.

I think the only way I could salvage it is if I can find someone trained in computers to take it apart and clean it...but I still think it's an incredibly long shot. Floppy discs don't like being handled.

Use something to try and unbond the hub from the floppy (retractable pen, stylus). Hopefully this will release the hub.

Next remove the media protector (the metal slide) along with the spring. This should rectify the slow slider sliding thing. Get it onto the HDD then onto a flash drive or cd-rw.

[Bonez]

Well, I found some really awesome instructions on how to take apart a floppy disc that's had something spilled on it and clean it. However, I tend to destroy everything I try to fix, so I took it to Staples' easytech center. I hope that in a few days and $40 later I'll have my file back. At this point the money is worth it, I just want my stuff back. :(