Old floppy disks
Oct 16, 2022 18:51:35 #
robbiedoug
Loc: Cuero, Texas
I have just today run across some old floppy disks (the hard ones, approximately 3 1/2" X 3 1/2") and I do not have a reader that would accept them. I know there is genealogy data on them as I have used them in the past. Does anyone out there know where I could find a reader that I could use to access whatever is stored on them? I do appreciate any assistance that is offered.
Oct 16, 2022 19:00:44 #
Oct 16, 2022 19:03:29 #
Oct 16, 2022 19:36:56 #
robbiedoug
Loc: Cuero, Texas
I want to thank everyone that answered my query about old floppies. It really gave me something to think about.
Oct 16, 2022 20:28:26 #
It the data is important, the USB connected drive is a rather modest expense. Have a look at the various review comments for each candidate product to see if one choice might be better than others, based on user experiences. Get the files onto current and redundant storage, where they belong.
Oct 16, 2022 23:39:08 #
gtilford
Loc: Woodstock, Ontario, Canada
You may also be able to see if a public library might still have a computer that has a 3 1/2 disk drive in one of their pc's then transfer over to a usb to find a better storage medium
Oct 17, 2022 07:29:04 #
robbiedoug wrote:
I have just today run across some old floppy disks (the hard ones, approximately 3 1/2" X 3 1/2") and I do not have a reader that would accept them. I know there is genealogy data on them as I have used them in the past. Does anyone out there know where I could find a reader that I could use to access whatever is stored on them? I do appreciate any assistance that is offered.
Someone provided some sources of new ones in a previous post. There are enough of these diskettes around that many, as you are, are still retrieving data from them. So, new diskette drives are readily available on the market at very reasonable prices.
Also, I see them at yard sales, flea markets, and estate sales on a regular basis.
Oct 17, 2022 07:59:43 #
I have a few hundreds of blanks as well as a few hundreds of diskette with data on them. I have a computer with the 3.5" floppy drive and I have a USB drive as well.
Oct 17, 2022 08:41:13 #
maxlieberman
Loc: 19027
robbiedoug wrote:
I have just today run across some old floppy disks (the hard ones, approximately 3 1/2" X 3 1/2") and I do not have a reader that would accept them. I know there is genealogy data on them as I have used them in the past. Does anyone out there know where I could find a reader that I could use to access whatever is stored on them? I do appreciate any assistance that is offered.
Floppy drives are available from Amazon and at Best Buys. Not very expensive. They connect via USB.
Oct 17, 2022 09:38:42 #
rwww80a
Loc: Hampton, NH
I purchased a 3 1/2 inch USB drive to copy some old floppies. Hooked it up to my laptop. You could hear it working but Windows would not recognize it or the files on the floppies. Returned it to Amazon. Your best bet is to use a computer with an older operating system.
Oct 17, 2022 11:01:07 #
rwww80a wrote:
I purchased a 3 1/2 inch USB drive to copy some old floppies. Hooked it up to my laptop. You could hear it working but Windows would not recognize it or the files on the floppies. Returned it to Amazon. Your best bet is to use a computer with an older operating system.
It's not the operating system problem. It's the disk and drive that are misaligned. The head on the floppy drive can get misaligned quite easily. While the new drive may have its head aligned well the disks that you have may have been written with a drive that is not aligned well to your new drive.
Oct 17, 2022 11:43:20 #
One word of advice is patience when you go to access the disks. In this world of solid state hard drives we forget how slow disks & CD's were back in the 80's & 90's. That "whirling" is just the long spinning to read the data.
Oct 17, 2022 12:25:22 #
robbiedoug wrote:
I have just today run across some old floppy disks (the hard ones, approximately 3 1/2" X 3 1/2") and I do not have a reader that would accept them. I know there is genealogy data on them as I have used them in the past. Does anyone out there know where I could find a reader that I could use to access whatever is stored on them? I do appreciate any assistance that is offered.
I bought the one on Amazon and it works great on my laptop with system 11 and for under $15.00 can’t go wrong
Oct 17, 2022 13:07:21 #
therwol
Loc: USA
BebuLamar wrote:
It's not the operating system problem. It's the disk and drive that are misaligned. The head on the floppy drive can get misaligned quite easily. While the new drive may have its head aligned well the disks that you have may have been written with a drive that is not aligned well to your new drive.
I have one computer left with a floppy drive, a Dell laptop that is perhaps 15 years old now. I can remove the optical drive and put the floppy drive in its place by just popping it out. I used it to try to recover some data from some floppies, and only about half could be read. They were created on different computers. I suspect head misalignment at some stage, recording or reading, was the problem. Anyway, the data wasn't super important, and I just recovered what I could.
Oct 17, 2022 13:16:46 #
Tman
Loc: Texas
Had the same problem a few years ago. Yes, you can get one off online but it's more fun going to your local computer store and find some young clerk and ask if they have floppy disc readers for computers; the look on their face will be priceless!! It took a while in my case to get the clerk to understand what I wanted; resolved when a much older store mgr. heard us talking.
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