Backup 5in Floppy?

J

jmkratt

New Member
Hello,

I am new here and was directed by a colleague of mine.

I have a strange question that has been getting more giggles than answers.

My mother has created several journals on her ancient computer and had saved the files on 5" floppy disks years ago, the likes of which I haven't seen in a long while. She was wondering if she could still retrieve and backup these files and I knew immediately it was over my head as I don't own any machine with a floppy drive. Can anyone perhaps offer any suggestions or point me in the right direction or simply confirm it cannot be done? Anything would be appreciated! Thanks
 
Most 5.25" disks use slightly modified floppy connectors. Some do have more typical 34pin plugs as 3.5" drives have, but they are NOT IDE.

And I could be completely wrong, but I seriously doubt an external drive, especially from a non-x86 machine, would work on a PC...
 
The external device would require a compatible controller card, which would be even harder to find. It can be quite easily done, though. Just get your hands on 5.25" floppy drive (you should still be able to find them second hand), and the appropriate floppy cable (like http://cgi.ebay.com/3-5-5-25-Combo-...5QQihZ008QQcategoryZ41994QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) You should have no problems using one with a modern PC. I'm certain that there are places that can retrieve this data for you, if you don't want to go to the effort, but it will probably cost more.

Keep in mind that if the disks are that old it's possible that they've degraded as well.
 
I have a computer at home that still has a 5.25 drive in it. Send 'em my way and I'll copy them for you.

Mako
 
[-0MEGA-];706227 said:
I dont have alot of experience on machines that old so I dont know if it's the same cable as a 3.5" drive uses now or not.
Click to expand...

If you don't know what you're talking about, then please don't respond...
 
Wow guys lets take it down a peg... To answer your original question jmkratt you can still indeed buy external 5.5 floppy drives main problem is after the almost 10 years of non use these tend to loose their data. Its worth a shot they have them on ebay for like 20 bucks if she really wants to see if they are there go for it. What program did she use to write them that may be a problem too finding something to open them.
 
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