I have some 5-1/4" floppies with large DOS based WordPerfect files I need to retrieve to a contemporary computer. The bios of computers today contain no slot for 5-1/4" floppies. I have a Panasonic Sr. Partner (256 K RAM) with dual 5-1/4" floppies, purchased in 1984. (I hear the 3.5" floppy hit the market in 1981.) There are only serial, parallel and monitor ports. Any ideas how I could make a transfer to a 3.5" floppy or to a contemporary computer using XP? Any ideas where I might find an older computer containing dual 3.5 and 5.25 drives? Any ideas of any kind would be appreciated.
5-1/4" floppy Transfer
- Thread starter BoPeep
- Start date
Doesnt old 5-1/4 floppy drives use the same cable as newer floppy drives. Just plug in the old floppy drive to the floppy port on the new computers motherboard and copy them off.
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I still have some, but no drive
. Still have a couple of Zip drives.
. Still have a couple of Zip drives.
Egon
Active Member
You might have to go into the bios and set what kind of floppy drive it is.
OvenMaster
VIP Member
This is where a PC's "B:" drive used to be: 5.25" floppies.
A: 3.5"
B: 5.25
C: boot drive
D:, E: etc.
A: 3.5"
B: 5.25
C: boot drive
D:, E: etc.
chibicitiberiu
New Member
woooaau 5 1/4" floppies.. How old are they? If they are too old you may not recover the data on them... Floppies can demagnetize over time.
Just curious...but what is on those floppies?????
I have a couple of old floppies with Wordperfect 5.1 and DbaseIII+ on them, back from when I used DOS.
What could you possible want on disks that must 20 years old?
Thanks to all for the many ideas so far. The floppies contain the text of numerous notes and an academic book I was writing before it got shelved in 1992. Now the topic has become relevant again. I know the disks are still good because my Sr. Partner reads them just fine. I don't have a printer that this old machine could operate, and I want to be able to edit the text anyway. I have thought of printing and then scanning, but I'm not sure how to accomplish a print, either.
This idea of simply plugging into the motherboard would be great. I am not sure the connection is the same, and to what extent there is a need for a driver appropriate to the 5-1/4" drive? Have your experiments with this worked?
This is with the computer off and unplugged. Put a box beside the computer with the 5-1/4 drive on it. Take the side off, if the computer has standard floppy drive unplug the cable and power connector from the drive, plug them into the 5-1/4 drive on the box. Plug the computer back in and boot up, go into the bios and change the Drive A settings from 3.5 to 5.25, save and exit. When it boots it should see the drive just fine, no need to install drivers. Then just copy the files off to a folder, then do whatever you please with them.