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5-1/4 floppy adapter

modem7 said:
360K drives or floppies?
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The latter. Unless the OP has a very old computer she's trying to get information from and has pulled the drive from that, odds are she's got a HD drive, and it shouldn't be too difficult to simply pull information off of any density 5¼" disks in XP.
 
Oh my.
I really hope we'd have a well working Wiki, this would be a nice subject.

I was wondering, what would nicely fill the gap would be a PCI floppy controller with support for also 360K drives.. but I've never even seen a pointer to that anywhere.
 
Jorg said:
I was wondering, what would nicely fill the gap would be a PCI floppy controller with support for also 360K drives.. but I've never even seen a pointer to that anywhere.
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That's what "in-betweener" computers are for, typically a Pentium 1 with Windows 98. Those are as common as dirt now.
 
Pepinno said:
That's what "in-betweener" computers are for, typically a Pentium 1 with Windows 98. Those are as common as dirt now.
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Of course, and I have plenty of them. My favorite is a nice P90 with all integrated mainboard.
I'd just be happy to avoid "in-betweeners", its a hassl- at least when you are busy with an older machine.
 
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Just to keep the thread clear, there is no writing of floppies. They are already written and now need to be read. :)

At this point the relevant information is this:

modem7 said:
Windows XP does not work with 360K drives (even when the motherboard BIOS supports them).
Windows XP will read 360K floppies in a 1.2M drive.
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Ole Juul said:
Just to keep the thread clear, there is no writing of floppies. They are already written and now need to be read. :)

At this point the relevant information is this:
Windows XP does not work with 360K drives (even when the motherboard BIOS supports them).
Windows XP will read 360K floppies in a 1.2M drive.
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Thank You !!!

To get back to the OP: there's probably no problem once you have a cable (and can set the drive type in the BIOS), but just in case: what's the make and model no. of the 5 1/4" drive?
 
Jorg said:
I was wondering, what would nicely fill the gap would be a PCI floppy controller with support for also 360K drives.. but I've never even seen a pointer to that anywhere.
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It would be very messy if you wanted to retain the legacy port-level interface (i.e. NEC 765-type). It would require a PCI-to-ISA bridge; since the legacy FDC uses DMA (one of the last common devices that does), it tends to get very complicated. Even many motherboards with ISA slots with chipsets much after 440BX can't do 8-bit ISA DMA correctly. I don't know if one could get a SuperIO south bridge chip to work in a PCI slot.

If you don't care about port-level compatibility, get a Catweasel. Or stick the guts of a PC on a card with floppy controller. It probably wouldn't be much more complicated.
 
Just so everyone knows - they are all double density 500K floppies. Boy, my one question sure got some discussion going!
 
caltroon said:
Just so everyone knows - they are all double density 500K floppies. Boy, my one question sure got some discussion going!
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That doesn't sound right. If they are double density they are probably 360K. This could be a problem if the drive you have is also a 360K drive. What is the model number on the drive? This is really important in this situation, which is why MikeS asked.
 
Is it me or everyone overlooking external drives, like the backpack 5.25... team it with win95/98 on a bootable thumbstick. ;)
 
twolazy said:
Is it me or everyone overlooking external drives, like the backpack 5.25... team it with win95/98 on a bootable thumbstick. ;)
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We're not looking for all the possible ways, but the one which is closest to the original wishes of the OP. Your suggestion may well be the best in the end, but we're nowhere near there yet. :)

To sum up:
- There are a number of 5-1/4" floppy disks (unknown whether 360 or 1.2) which need to be read.
- There is a 5-1/4" floppy drive (unknown whether 360 or 1.2)
- There is a "modern" computer running XP which has (we think) a floppy header, but we don't know what the BIOS looks like yet.
- It has been determined that XP will not support a 360 drive but will support 1.2meg drives in which it can read 360 disks.
- The OP is currently sourcing a floppy drive cable, and has yet to report back with the drive model.

Analysis:
- Whether the disks are DD or HD does not matter.
- If the drive is a (suspected) 1.2 meg then all will be fine. (we're almost done)
- If the drive turns out to be 360K then another solution will be needed (perhaps twolazy's)

Note: If it becomes necessary to purchase an item of considerable cost, then it would probably be easier to just mail the box of disks to somebody so they can copy them onto a CD and mail back both - or even just e-mail back the files. Something I and others would probably do for free. Of course I can't speak for the OP, but I don't get the impression that she is particularly into collection computing equipment.
 
Well I was thinking along the lines of sacrficing one of these , cheap and works quite well... 11 shipped

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Colorado-Tr...C_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item4ab5d3555a

Inside that tape drive is a floppy to parallel board, which works with the Microsolutions driver for external floppy drives. Most the Qic-80 drives were basically just external floppy drives tbh, seeing how it uses the same interface, and pretty much is just an internal drive, with a larger bezel, just its in a fancy enclosure. Also should have a 5.25" molex connector as well for power, well at the one I converted does. :thumbsup:

Then just use the floppy utilities found in a diff thread on here, team it with a cheap thumbstick (prob already has one) to boot say win98se (which in this situation I would do). Then all the data will be transferred (using say Diskcopyfast or Winimage etc) to the thumbstick and easily used in XP/Vista/7/etc. Seems like the easiest way to help, while providing a way for it to be somewhat user friendly.


Or option B, just find a member willing to transfer the data for you to a digital format, like .vfd or .ima. I might be willing to help if I can keep the drive and floppies ^_^
 
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5-1/4 drive

5-1/4 drive

Dear EVERYONE,

I am in the United States (Arizona, but so far it's still the US). If someone would like to copy these disks for me this could end it right here. I will be happy to send someone the disks and a flash drive to copy them onto. Whoever does this can also have the drive. Once the disks are copied I have no use for it. It is a TEAC FD-55GFR says 7149-US Part No. 19307671-49.

Carol




Ole Juul said:
That doesn't sound right. If they are double density they are probably 360K. This could be a problem if the drive you have is also a 360K drive. What is the model number on the drive? This is really important in this situation, which is why MikeS asked.
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caltroon said:
Dear EVERYONE,

I am in the United States (Arizona, but so far it's still the US). If someone would like to copy these disks for me this could end it right here. I will be happy to send someone the disks and a flash drive to copy them onto. Whoever does this can also have the drive. Once the disks are copied I have no use for it. It is a TEAC FD-55GFR says 7149-US Part No. 19307671-49.

Carol
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Hi Carol,
You're so close to having it all together. That drive is a 1.2meg drive and will more than likely read any disks you have. A two buck cable and a quick visit to your computer's BIOS (easy) and you're happening. Suit yourself, but just sayin... :)
 
Ole Juul said:
Hi Carol,
You're so close to having it all together. That drive is a 1.2meg drive and will more than likely read any disks you have. A two buck cable and a quick visit to your computer's BIOS (easy) and you're happening. Suit yourself, but just sayin... :)
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Indeed... mind you, since asking what time it is will invariably get you a dozen different (and often contradictory) ways to build a clock (all digital of course) on a forum like this, it's pretty easy to get discouraged...


;-)
 
5-1.4 floppy

5-1.4 floppy

I'll take a quick trip to Computer Renaissance and see what they have. Wish I hadn't given all that stuff away.

Ole Juul said:
Hi Carol,
You're so close to having it all together. That drive is a 1.2meg drive and will more than likely read any disks you have. A two buck cable and a quick visit to your computer's BIOS (easy) and you're happening. Suit yourself, but just sayin... :)
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Even if she does get the cable, there is no guarantee that drive work without some love (cleaning and lube).

I am more then willing to copy off the diskettes on my own drive which I know is working. No need for a flash drive though, I can email or upload the files to my website for you. =)

Send me a PM if you are interested, I will give you my address and phone #. I would be more then happy to copy them off for the diskettes and drive in return. My name is Dave btw :)
 
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twolazy said:
Even if she does get the cable, there is no guarantee that drive work without some love (cleaning and lube).
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Way to encourage. :(

I haven't personally had much problem when digging out old (even poorly stored) drives from years ago. YMMV

I am more than willing to copy off the diskettes on my own drive which I know is working. No need for a flash drive though, I can email or upload the files to my website for you. =)

Send me a PM if you are interested, I will give you my address and phone #. I would be more than happy to copy them off for the diskettes and drive in return. My name is Dave btw :)
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Boy, you really want that drive don't you. :)
 
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