Floppy discs: I have dozens of old floppy discs containing programs I am fond of and don't want to lose. However, they take up too much physical storage space. Can I just copy each...

fsommer

I have dozens of old floppy discs containing programs I am fond of and don't want to lose. However, they take up too much physical storage space. Can I just copy each disc to a single CD containing multiple disc copies? Can I install a program to my computer from the CD copy?
Thanks.

Vienna74 Loc: Bountiful, Utah now Panama

It seems you could try that and find out.

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

fsommer wrote:

I have dozens of old floppy discs containing programs I am fond of and don't want to lose. However, they take up too much physical storage space. Can I just copy each disc to a single CD containing multiple disc copies? Can I install a program to my computer from the CD copy?
Thanks.

Yes and yes.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Yes. Do it while you still have a drive to read them.

Laramie Loc: Tempe

Some old progs looked for B: as the source drive, but I'd do it anyway. Floppies don't last.

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

fsommer wrote:

I have dozens of old floppy discs containing programs I am fond of and don't want to lose. However, they take up too much physical storage space. Can I just copy each disc to a single CD containing multiple disc copies? Can I install a program to my computer from the CD copy?
Thanks.

Why don't you copy them to an external drive or better yet, two or more for safety.
CD's are so yesterday.

uhaas2009

Just a thought, would those programs work on today’s operating system? Programs had to be always adjusted or sometimes made new because wasn’t possible to run on certain operating programs.

BebuLamar

Copy them on USB thumb drives or SSD external drive. Many programs won't install if they are not on the floppy disks. But copy them first but beware that you may have to recreate the floppy to install some program.
Many of those disks are for DOS program and one way to save DOS programs is to install them on a computer then copy the entire folder (directory).

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Laramie wrote:

Some old progs looked for B: as the source drive, but I'd do it anyway. Floppies don't last.

Or A:

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I wonder... Can one temporarily assign a CD drive to be logical drive A: in the case of putting the program that was on a floppy onto a CD?

BebuLamar

Longshadow wrote:

I wonder... Can one temporarily assign a CD drive to be logical drive A: in the case of putting the program that was on a floppy onto a CD?

I don't know of a way of doing that but if you boot DOS from the CD it would be A and it only the same size as the floppy. The rest can be a CD which is drive D or C.
For the OP just copy each floppy into a folder. I wouldn't recommend CD-R as they go bad in time. Some programs on floppy just need to run with no installation needed.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

uhaas2009 wrote:

Just a thought, would those programs work on today’s operating system? Programs had to be always adjusted or sometimes made new because wasn’t possible to run on certain operating programs.

That was my first thought. Data and photos are worth saving. Old programs are probably not worth the effort. Oh, and by the way, back in the floppy disk days, many program disks were copy-protected.

BebuLamar

DWU2 wrote:

That was my first thought. Data and photos are worth saving. Old programs are probably not worth the effort. Oh, and by the way, back in the floppy disk days, many program disks were copy-protected.

Yeah but there are some free software that can copy those programs but they still have to run on a floppy disk.

fsommer

fsommer wrote:

I have dozens of old floppy discs containing programs I am fond of and don't want to lose. However, they take up too much physical storage space. Can I just copy each disc to a single CD containing multiple disc copies? Can I install a program to my computer from the CD copy?
Thanks.

Thank you everyone. All valuable suggestions.

Smudgey Loc: Ohio, Calif, Now Arizona

You could also get a one or two terabyte SSD and copy everything to that.