On Monday 14 April 2008 05:44, Fred Erickson wrote: > On Sun, 2008-04-13 at 20:10 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote: > > Anne Wilson wrote: > > > I need to wipe some floppies before disposal. I have a usb LS-120 > > > drive that I used to be able to use with linux, but it looks as though > > > the drivers may no longer be in the kernel - it is of the vitage of zip > > > drives. Or maybe I just need some extra packages installed? Can > > > anyone help me get this working again? > > > > > > Anne > > > > If you have a large quantity of the disks, consider using a bulk > > tape eraser, if you have one, or a magnet if you do not. It is much > > faster, and does a better job. The erase heads on a disk drive are > > not as wide as the write head, so you leave recoverable data behind. > > (Something about not damaging adjacent tracks.) > > > > Mikkel > > And if you're really paranoid, take the disks outside, place them on the > ground, point a lit propane torch at them. Crispy critters in no time at > all :) > > Fred I may well just physically destroy these disks, but all the same, I'd like to get the device working again. There have been times when I found I needed something that is on a floppy somewhere - and I still have some of the 128MB disks with old data on. I'd have to access them to get them transferred to a CD. It's just a useful fall-back device. Ah well - another time, when there's nothing pressing :-) Anne
