> I'd like to know if anyone has ever had success (? as you would define it!) dealing with old floppy disks? 
> 
> In our case we have 3.5" floppies with files that cannot be opened because of program-specific, uncommon or outdated file extensions.  (We did get as far as procuring a reader!)
> 
> What constitutes due diligence in processing these before throwing up my hands in defeat and pitching them?  

Well, I'm going with the old favorite response...
"IT DEPENDS"

Industry segment, type of work you do, if it's client based, who regulates what you do, what COULD be on the media... 

In my recent past position, an engineer brought me the proverbial shoebox of media... 5.25 and 3.5 diskettes. The type of work his group was involved in had a Federal Retention requirement of "Permanent"... So irrespective of whether we could read it or not, it couldn't be discarded.  We started looking for means of reading the media, and in some cases, we could.., determined they were backups or duplicate copies, and discarded the media. In other cases, we couldn't, so we retained it.  The only option was to get approval from our client or NARA to discard them... And the client was reluctant. The CFR states efforts are to be made to avoid obsolescence of media and content is not to be abandoned... So if (as a contractor) you allowed this to happen, you own the problem.

I agree with the concept of writing a policy for handling aged out media, but in certain conditions, you might still be bound by other obligations that prevent destruction.  

If you DO write a policy like this, I think it's important to include provisions in there to AVOID media reaching this state, such as periodic inspection, conversion and migration. 

Larry
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