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Need to Copy a 5.25" Floppy

C

CluelessInSeattle

Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2016
Messages
22
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
I seem to have painted myself into a corner and would be grateful if you guys could brainstrom with me to come up with an economical solution.

After years of searching for an old MS-DOS program, I got a tip from a contributor to one of these forums and found a copy for sale on eBay. But it was on a 5.25" floppy: (See my thread in the vintage software forum) WANTED: THOUGHTLINE Outliner Software for MS-DOS or CP/M

When I ordered the floppy from eBay I thought I would have two ways to read the disk: 1) My old 286 with one 5.25" drive and one 3.5" drive or 2) A PC that a BBS acquaintance had built for me and was waiting for me to come by to pick it up. It has a 5.25" floppy drive and a 3.5" floppy drive.

Well, when the software arrived in the mail (in just a couple of days!) I went into the spare room to find my old 286, but it wasn't there. Then I realiezed that I must've taken it to the PC recycling shop when I got forced to move last November by the skyrocketing rents in Seattle. So I checked in with my buddy on his BBS to arrange to head down his way to pick up my "new" PC. But he had bad news for me, short and to the point: "Drive-C: got trashed. Don't know how."

So I'm thinking of buying a used 5.25" floppy drive from a recycling shop in my old neighborhood. I think one of my old PCs must have a vacant drive bay I can pop it into (and I hope I might get some coaching here in this forum on how to hook it up and configure it).

But when I was Googlilng for a 5.25" floppy drive, I came across this intriguing little gadget that would allow me to connect a 5.25" floppy drive to a USB drive on most any computer. From the looks of the photos on the web page all they give you is a card, so I'm guessing that I'd have to build an enclosure for it:

5.25 Floppy Drive USB Connector.jpg
5.25 Floppy Drive USB Connector (2).jpg

FC5025 USB 5.25" floppy controller

I'm not very tech savvy, and due to my failing eyesight and worsening motor skills these days, I try to evade little projects like that if I can possible avoid them. But should I have to tackle it, I'm hoping that I might find someone here who could offer me some coaching.

So for starters, I'd be grateful for your opinions on that USB adapter for 5.25" floppies.

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"
 
Do you have a system with a "legacy" floppy drive (i.e. one that has a 34-conductor ribbon cable that attaches to a motherboard connector)? Then 3.5' or 5.25" doesn't make a difference. Just get a 5.25" drive and connect it to the cable and change your BIOS settings. No need for special controllers.

Not to complicate the matter, but what do you intend to run the software on? Not all old software is compatible with very new machines. Your best bet might be to spring for an old system--at least it would be a straightforward approach.
 
Thanks for the speedy reply, Chuck(G).

Yeah, it's those BIOS settings I was worried about. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I'm running MS-DOS 6.21 on a hand-me-down Toshiba Satellite 2545XCDT laptop which seems to run all my old DOS software OK.

I use my computer mostly in bed these days due to worsening chronic illnesses. One feature of the laptop that's inconvenient for me is the floppy drive located on the front of the machine, which makes it awkward to swap disks while working in bed. A machine with the floppy drive on the side would be much handier. And I do need to spring for a second laptop which I can press into service when my current machine finally gives up the ghost.

I just came across a thread about floppy drive emulators. But have yet to find out how much they cost.

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"
 
That FC5025 USB 5.25" floppy controller is a read-only device, and probably can't handle copy protections. It might happen to do what you need, but for most vintage enthusiasts it is not very useful.

I'd be a bit worried that just jumping in with a random floppy drive and only the one disk that dirt or grime in either might rip up the disk. At minimum you would need a few extra disks to fully test the drive before hand. And visually inspect the disk to make sure there is no grime on the disk surface.

There is also the slight chance that the disk might be oddly formatted (like for DOS 1.x) and some disk tools might have issues. At least I get the impression it is probably not copy-protected.

If it is a normal 360K disk, you can simply use WinImage to read in a complete image of the disk. And then run the resulting disk image in an emulator. WinImage will work on almost any version of Windows. If WinImage doesn't like the disk then things get a little trickier.
 
Hey, Chuck(G), it looks like we might be neighbors, though "Pacific Northwest" does cover a lot of territory. So your offer looks rather attractive. The program is on a single 5.25" floppy. But I'm not sure I'm ready to entrust it to the postal service, since that disk is such a rarity. The post office out here in the suburb where I live now is not only incompetent but criminal. A check I sent by certified mail from my local post office was missing from the envelope when it was delivered. The envelope had been cleanly slit as if by a razor so it still appeared intact when it was delivered. Mail I've sent from here has never arrived. And mail addressed to me sometimes never gets to me.

Hi SomeGuy, I've got lots of old 5.25" floppies that I can use to test a second-hand drive. Thanks for that suggestion.

In the meantime, as I was typing this message, I got a phone call from the guy who was putting together a PC for me to run MS-DOS on. He said it should be ready for me to pick-up tomorrow night. It has both size drives, a 5.25" and 3.25". So maybe by tomorrow night I'll have my "new" program copied over to some back-up floppies. We'll see...

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"
 
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I guess post offices are different in different areas. I have a very good relationship with the local people here--they know me well enough to deliver mis-addressed mail.

I've yet to have a bad experience with diskettes sent in a Priority Mail box, if that matters in the future, however.

In any case, I'll keep my fingers crossed for your success. One word of warning: if the floppy starts to make noise when you put it in the drive, stop--immediately! Your drive will likely peel the oxide right off the cookie. There are ways to handle old problem floppies; a bit too involved to explain in a single post.
 
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