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Thread: 5.25 floppy help!!

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    5.25 floppy help!!

    A friend has about 70 5.25 floppy disks with important data, and no other backups exist as his current backup got deleted / corrupted.

    He is asking me to get the data from these disks and copy them to a new usb drive etc, so he can use the data on modern hardware. God knows what the data actually is, or why it's so important (and why the only current backup was on a usb stick..... ) but anyway...

    Of course i dont have a 5.25 floppy drive, and can't find one to buy, and i dont even know if they still make them.. and if i bought an old internal drive it would not have the correct conectors to fit a modern motherboard anyway..

    Do they make USB 5.25 drives anywhere??

    He is willing to pay me to do it but i'm not sure what to tell him, i could buy an old 386 pc off ebay and use that maybe?

    Any ideas?

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    omg haxor listy's Avatar
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    Re: 5.25 floppy help!!

    found this http://www.deviceside.com/fc5025.html

    but you still need a drive

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    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: 5.25 floppy help!!

    Drives are available on ebay at surprisingly reasonable prices, and if you have a computer with a floppy header on the motherboard you won't need an adapter. 5.25" is a bit of an unusual one nowadays (I still have a couple of 3.5" floppy drives kicking around!), but you should be able to sort something

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    Re: 5.25 floppy help!!

    Something else i'm just worried about.. i have no idea what computer was used to save the original data.. he said something about some of it being about 30 years old... If that is true, i'm thinking maybe he used something like a BBC micro? Would that data be compatible if i just connected a 5.25 drive to a windows pc? I'm thinking it wont be able to read them as it wont be formatted properly for windows.... I'ts like when i take an Amiga 3.5" disk and put it in a PC, it just isnt the same and wont read the data.


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    Re: 5.25 floppy help!!

    Is anything written on them?

    Example - if it says ADFS - thats acorn disk filing system?

    Can he remember what software he used on it? If he can then it's possible to work out the system it ran on.

    Theres probably an emulator that can read the drive if you can get it there. And often theres a tool for reading and converting these formats once you have an idea of the computer.
    Hexus estas unu el la plej bonaj teknikaj ejoj Mi havas vizititan!

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    Pork & Beans Powerup Phage's Avatar
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    Re: 5.25 floppy help!!

    If all else fails, there are specialist firms who can get it for you.
    Society's to blame,
    Or possibly Atari.

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