[asdefghyk]

Is there some kind of "magnetic microscope. Something with a head that detects magnetism, that could be made to scan (vary closely ) the surface of the floppy with out actuallyTOUCHING the surface. This data could then be decoded to the actual data. It would be a "long winded" and require lots processing , but it would avoid wearing the floppy out....?

[eschaton]

This is exactly what magnetic flux imaging does, it just uses a regular floppy mechanism with all the risk that entails.

If one built a more sensitive head mechanism that floats above the disk, one could (say) load a disk sans envelope/case and take a flux image of it without anything touching the surface.

Then one could use the existing flux processing software (possibly tweaking it) to extract the data.

[XorNot]

Magnetic Force Microscopy is a known data recovery technique and the originating technology of the various aggressive disk wiping programs.