What are recertified diskettes.
Over the years, many types of diskettes have disappeared from the shelves, many diskettes have simply been scrapped when the demand decreased, because there was little or no interest anymore in the declining types.
Today if you can find a box of floppy disks they are either NOS (New old stock) or they are recertified (and not refurbished as some advertise them).
Recertified means that the diskettes are technically assessed for quality, and if they are still in a condition that they can last for a while without any problems, they are tested and if they pass the test 2 times without errors, they are suitable for use.
Mind you, they remain old diskettes, the quality of the disks depends on how they are / are stored.
my own floppy disks have been stored in a storage with a barely varying temperature and have been packed light and airtight.
How does a used disk become a Recertified Disk :
You regularly read about disks that have mold on the carrier, those disks can sometimes be saved with a thorough cleaning with alcohol, but that is a very cumbersome job and really only profitable with important data or an original piece of software that is scarce.
Dry storage, with few temperature changes is the motto, no light, no air and then you actually have the most favorable conditions for your media (disk, tapes, video tapes).
The recertified diskettes have all been tested at least twice:
Read test : Read all tracks and sectors to see if there are any read errors.
Format test : format the drive and see if there are any errors:
- No Errors : Disk is good to use
- Hard error(s) the disk is immediately removed, it can no longer be used reliably.
- Soft error(s) When detecting a soft error, the formatter makes a 2nd attempt to format the sector(s) if something seems to be wrong, if this 2nd attempt is successful after going through the format action, the format immediately go through the action again, if soft errors are detected again, the disk is still removed.
Quality grading of the recertified disks :
First of all, A, B and C grade says nothing about the technical condition of the media, it is identical for all grades.
The standard is only based on the optical condition of the diskette.
A Grade : The discs have no (parts of) labels or glue residues, there is no writing on them
B Grade : The discs may have some glue or label residue, or the disc may have been written on with a pen or pencil
C grade : The discs still have labels or parts thereof that are difficult to remove.
Again, technically all recertified diskettes are the same, it's just the optical condition.
The recertified diskettes are sold per set of 10, an extra 10% (1 disk) is always supplied in case one should fail.
Prices of the Recertified disks (per 10 pieces)
10 pcs 3.5 inch MF2DD (720 / 880 KB) Grade A 7.00
10 pcs 3.5 inch MF2DD (720 / 880 KB) Grade B 6.00
10 pcs 3.5 inch MF2DD (720 / 880 KB) Grade C 5.00
10 pcs 3.5 inch MF2HD (1.44 MB) New 12.50
10 pcs 3.5 inch MF2HD (1.44 MB) Grade A 7.00
10 pcs 3.5 inch MF2HD (1.44 MB) Grade A 7.00
10 pcs 3 .5 inch MF2HD (1.44MB) Grade A 7.00
10 pieces 5.25 inch DSDD (360 / 720 / 880 KB) New 15.00
10 pieces 5.25 inch DSDD (360 / 720 / 880 KB) Grade A 8.00
10 pieces 5.25 inch DSDD (360 / 720 / 880 KB) Grade B 7.00
The 5.25 DSDD disks can be used for the C1541 (C64), but are not cut out for use if you flip them over, you will have to do this yourself, this can be done with an official floppy cutter or with a regular hole punch.
10 pcs 5.25 inch DSHD (880KB / 1.2MB) Grade A 7.00
10 pcs 5.25 inch DSHD (880KB / 1.2MB) Grade B 6.00
The HD Disks are fine to use for the Amiga with a 5.25 drive with a TEAC or Chinon Drive, these can NOT be used for the Commodore 64 and the associated drives.
