We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies]Well they used to. https://www.amazon.com/External-Floppy-Portable-Windows-Mac%C2%A3%C2%ACGeneral/dp/B07G444XKW
in the temperature controlled storage area and the family
asked me how to read them (given nobody has that old of a PC).
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies]
in the temperature controlled storage area and the family
asked me how to read them (given nobody has that old of a PC).
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies]
in the temperature controlled storage area and the family
asked me how to read them (given nobody has that old of a PC).
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies]
in the temperature controlled storage area and the family
asked me how to read them (given nobody has that old of a PC).
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
On 9/3/2023 8:51 PM, Mickey D wrote:I guess some lousy hardware or lousy driver had the motor running for
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies]
in the temperature controlled storage area and the family
asked me how to read them (given nobody has that old of a PC).
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
What would your guess be on the "era" of the media ?
Check the labeling, and see if it is 3.5" 1.44MB .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk_format
Some bazaar sellers seem to have these Axgear USB floppy drives.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/285237458830
A "regular" computer store, the staff will just laugh at you,
if you ask for such a thing. I don't think there is any
giant stock of "new" kit for this. The Axgear might have
been a bulk buy from a bankruptcy or something.
If an attempt to read them with the 3.5" 1.44MB drive
does not work, then I would just give up. You would
need someone with a collection of old equipment, to
try reading them in older/different formats. I might have
some media here, which is 720KB or so. Maybe for a Mac.
I have older equipment here, but some of it has not been
booted for three decades, and is unlikely to work.
One thing I can warn you about, is don't leave a floppy
in a drive. Remove it when done. A clever student at work,
he didn't learn a damn thing the entire time he worked for us.
He started work on a document. He saved to a floppy. An 8" floppy.
He left the floppy in the drive all summer. He was supposed to
submit his report at the end of his work term. So I'm introduced
to the teary-eyed fool, who "cannot save to the floppy any more".
The damn machine had a hard drive, and there was no excuse for
using a floppy. They hand me the floppy, I have a look, and
the groove worn in the media would make Jesus cry. And his doc
was "gone-o". Gone to bit heaven. So at least for those floppies,
you don't want to leave them in the drive.
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies]
in the temperature controlled storage area and the family
asked me how to read them (given nobody has that old of a PC).
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
Mickey D wrote:FWIW I've found that my generic no-name USB 3.5" floppy drive doesn't
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies]
in the temperature controlled storage area and the family
asked me how to read them (given nobody has that old of a PC).
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
You'll find a few on ebay and elsewhere.
BUT beware. Drivers will be needed. Don't buy any reader until you read
the small print, ie. which versions of Windows it will work with.
Maybe XP or prior OSes only.
Ed
I guess some lousy hardware or lousy driver had the motor running for "days".
I had a machine that would test the floppy on boot, then continue from the hard disk. The machine booted slower if there was no floppy (longer test and timeout), so I left it in for years. The floppy was fine.
On 9/4/2023 12:52 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
Mickey D wrote:FWIW I've found that my generic no-name USB 3.5" floppy drive doesn't
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies]
in the temperature controlled storage area and the family
asked me how to read them (given nobody has that old of a PC).
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
You'll find a few on ebay and elsewhere.
BUT beware. Drivers will be needed. Don't buy any reader until you
read the small print, ie. which versions of Windows it will work with.
Maybe XP or prior OSes only.
Ed
show up in Windows (10) File Explorer or Disk Management but works fine
in the 'DOS box" (Command cmd.exe) on the same Windows 10 PC.
On 9/4/2023 8:29 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
I guess some lousy hardware or lousy driver had the motor running for "days".
I had a machine that would test the floppy on boot, then continue from the hard disk. The machine booted slower if there was no floppy (longer test and timeout), so I left it in for years. The floppy was fine.
The description was of an 8" floppy.
The motor on ours was 115V AC and ran from mains.
This meant the inside of the PC had mains wiring,
in addition to the usual low voltage DC for logic.
The motor is lower left. There is a belt drive you can't
see, that terminates on the spindle.
https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-a1x7hg2jgk/images/stencil/608x608/products/21320/120807/shugart-801-8-inch-internal-floppy-disk-drive-4.35__04572.1490181563.jpg?c=2
In this one, you can see how, when we "closed the door" using
that raised handle, that compressed the plastic hub up against
the spindle and caused the media to rotate inside the floppy "envelope".
The envelope was there to protect the media. The dude left the
door closed for four months. Media spinning the whole time.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Floppy_Disk_Drive_8_inch.jpg
On 2023-09-04 16:03, Paul wrote:
On 9/4/2023 8:29 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
I guess some lousy hardware or lousy driver had the motor running for "days".
I had a machine that would test the floppy on boot, then continue from the hard disk. The machine booted slower if there was no floppy (longer test and timeout), so I left it in for years. The floppy was fine.
The description was of an 8" floppy.
The motor on ours was 115V AC and ran from mains.
This meant the inside of the PC had mains wiring,
in addition to the usual low voltage DC for logic.
The motor is lower left. There is a belt drive you can't
see, that terminates on the spindle.
https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-a1x7hg2jgk/images/stencil/608x608/products/21320/120807/shugart-801-8-inch-internal-floppy-disk-drive-4.35__04572.1490181563.jpg?c=2
In this one, you can see how, when we "closed the door" using
that raised handle, that compressed the plastic hub up against
the spindle and caused the media to rotate inside the floppy "envelope".
The envelope was there to protect the media. The dude left the
door closed for four months. Media spinning the whole time.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Floppy_Disk_Drive_8_inch.jpg
Ok, but still that's a "faulty" design, IMO.
The "staff" had to be trained to cover that faulty design and know that leaving the floppy inside with closed door must not be done.
On 9/4/2023 12:52 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
Mickey D wrote:FWIW I've found that my generic no-name USB 3.5" floppy drive doesn't show up in Windows (10) File Explorer or Disk Management but works fine in the 'DOS box" (Command cmd.exe) on the same Windows 10 PC.
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies]
in the temperature controlled storage area and the family
asked me how to read them (given nobody has that old of a PC).
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
You'll find a few on ebay and elsewhere.
BUT beware. Drivers will be needed. Don't buy any reader until you read the small print, ie. which versions of Windows it will work with.
Maybe XP or prior OSes only.
Ed
snip <
One thing I can warn you about, is don't leave a floppy
in a drive. Remove it when done. A clever student at work,
he didn't learn a damn thing the entire time he worked for us.
He started work on a document. He saved to a floppy. An 8" floppy.
He left the floppy in the drive all summer. He was supposed to
submit his report at the end of his work term. So I'm introduced
to the teary-eyed fool, who "cannot save to the floppy any more".
The damn machine had a hard drive, and there was no excuse for
using a floppy. They hand me the floppy, I have a look, and
the groove worn in the media would make Jesus cry. And his doc
was "gone-o". Gone to bit heaven. So at least for those floppies,
you don't want to leave them in the drive.
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
One thing I can warn you about, is don't leave a floppy
in a drive. Remove it when done. A clever student at work ...
We found a cache of about 50 old floppy disks & hard floppies
Please elaborate
- what size floppy disks: 8", 5.25", 3.5" or other?
- what machine created them and what format? macintosh? PC?
Do they make a cheap USB floppy/hardfloppy reader?
As others have already replied:
USB interfaced 3.5" floppy drives are cheap.
They'll read 720k or 1.44 meg PC format.
If the floppy-disk reads without errors, YAY!
Otherwise you'll need data restoration tools
and/or retrofit controllers such as Greaseweazle or Applesauce.
One thing I can warn you about, is don't leave a floppy
in a drive. Remove it when done. A clever student at work ...
There are many reasons for that
- some drives never lifted the heads
and never powered off the spindle motor,
wearing out the floppy disk
- some drives glitched when powered on or off,
erasing whatever was under the disk heads at that time
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 379 |
| Nodes: | 16 (2 / 14) |
| Uptime: | 37:53:57 |
| Calls: | 8,141 |
| Calls today: | 4 |
| Files: | 13,083 |
| Messages: | 5,857,495 |
