Destroying Old Floppies in Bulk

[rjbinney]

I guess the adjective "old" is redundant.

I am packing up my basement and found hundreds of Quill 3.5" floppies that I used for Mac backups between 89 and 93.

Likely, they are useless to anyone who finds them.

Still.

Is there a way - a safe way - to destroy these in bulk? I don't have a shredder handy. Or a supermagnet. Or an X-ray machine. (I did find my X-Ray specs from 1972, but they seem to have lost their power).

[patio]

Bonfire in the back yard...

[rjbinney]

Burning plastic? Seems to fail the "safe" test...?

[Salmon Trout]

Bonfire in the back yard...

Nasty smoke, bad to breathe for you, your kids, pets and neighbours. Put them in the bath or a bucket and pour on hot water until covered. Add dish soap and salt. Leave for 1 hour. Boiling water from kettle is best. Remove from water, allow to drain and keep for 48 hours before putting in trash.


 

[rjbinney]

Thanks. I was wondering if soaking them would be bad enough!

I'm also thinking it might be therapeutic to drill a big f--ing hole right through them!

[Salmon Trout]

I'm also thinking it might be therapeutic to drill a big f--ing hole right through them!

Drilling would definitely work.

[DaveLembke]

I went through the hole drilling method back in 2001 when I got rid of piles of floppies and squeezed hundreds of them onto greatly space saving 2 CD-R discs. Had 2 trash bags full of them to toss out.

[patio]

Sorry for all i offended...

[rjbinney]

No worries. Toxic fumes wafting over the neighbors is fine. Besides, I live in a city, so I'd have to set the fire in a dumpster.

[Salmon Trout]

Essentially, research for advice about keeping floppies safe - usually this is avoid dust, humidity, magnetic fields, heat, and then flagrantly disregard as many of these as you can, as drastically as you can. You can split each case open with your fingernails and extract the actual disk (it comes off the hub easily) and when you have a wad of these, cut it in two with scissors.