I'm closing in on roughly 700 floppy disks atm ...720k and 1.44mb .
Tested and re-formatted.
Binning any disk that does not format first time withought errors and missing track zero etc.
These are my findings.
out of every 100 DS DD diskettes I lose between 4 and 8 unuseable.
out of every 100 DS HD disks that number increases substantially to between 30 and 40.
I can only conclude that the older disk format is more reliable even though they are older.
reasons for this are either higher use rate.
or better manufacturing process/materials.
and possibly the human factor.
Cheaper disks in the HD format so less care taken in daily use.
any thoughts on this ?
rgds

Took a break from processing floppy disks...which _is_ both time consuming and boring after a while.
Got some new white tape for my labeling machine ..to add some reminder labels to the quad flop disk processing station.
at my age memory aids become very important 😉
also added a secondary CF reader at the rear making both a storage drive for images made ...and a quick and easy way to import games n stuff when in Win98 mode.
Only the side panels to re-fit now and I can call this project done.
rgds
VS
..just as an afterthought...Mighty Melt liquid available at Amazon is indeed very effective helping greatly with stubborn disk label removal.
Gotta thank Shelby and Adrian Black for inspiring this quadflop build.

This might be of interest to you: Re: TexElec Quad-Flop (FDC) and Windows 95

He claims to have gotten 4 floppies working on windows 98 by modifying the built-in floppy driver

Cheers Max...I will certainly give that a look...
Very much appreciated.

Surprised that you didn’t include an LS-120 super drive in this build. I hear they are good at reading some 1.44 and 720 disks that are not readable in standard floppy drives.

douglar wrote on 2025-11-28, 12:54:

Surprised that you didn’t include an LS-120 super drive in this build. I hear they are good at reading some 1.44 and 720 disks that are not readable in standard floppy drives.

I thought about it Douglar ...but I dont own one...and pretty scarce /pricey in the UK.
As to the floppies processed ...I'd guestimate roughly 40% scrapped unuseable...though I did keep a few for making cleaning disks ..parts etc.
Not got the final tally yet but the end is in sight 12 boxes filled between 50 >> 60 to a box.
Roughly 50% are DSHD...
50% DSDD
AS a rough guide The DSDD are proportionally higher reliability.
Metal Shutter disks being on the whole more reliable than plastic shutter disks...and that of course was a more recent inovation.
So I stick to my earlier statement They made better floppies in the past ...70s and 80s...judging by what I've discarded.
The disk contents were archived when appropriate with either SCP Kryoflux or Greaseweazle...but mostly personal user data...so formatted over.
😀

Vipersan wrote on 2025-12-12, 14:53:

I thought about it Douglar ...but I dont own one...and pretty scarce /pricey in the UK.

Look for those iMac era external USB "Super Disk" drives. You can still find some bargains if you are willing to take a risk on an "untested / missing power supply" item.

If you find one, take it out of the case and add a 3d printed front bracket. Here is the one that I made -- https://www.tinkercad.com/things/fzh5r3kvSQI- … 120-front-panel