How to read 5-1/4" floppies?

[dmeek]

I still have my Apple II clone, almost threw it out a few (15) years ago but couldn't do it. I have an EPROM programmer card which got used a lot for saving/copying firmware and especially drum machine sound chips.
It only went up to 2764. I added a switch to do a 27128 in 2 passes. Not sure why I am keeping it, though there's lots of room in my attic so no pressure.

[nosaj]

No telling what some of it might fetch on ebay.
nosaj

[Tom Phillips]

This kind of situation has been an issue for me too. I am working really hard to convince myself to let go, recycle or just trash much of my saved stuff. The other day, I looked through photos showing my shop over the last 20+ years. I was surprised to see how the space has filled up with saved stuff that I don't use. I know that's not the same as the floppy topic but I do have quite a bit of media without the proper equipment to read it. Some is precious like the micro cassette that holds my Dad's outgoing answering machine voice message.

The fight to organize and simplify goes on. Feels like a never ending journey.

[g1]

If you have not needed to refer back to the floppies in years, what possible hidden treasures could there be? Maybe old Uncle Frank's last will, where he left everything to you? ;-)

No, it's all that old line-drawing and dot matrix pron.

[Tom Phillips]

No, it's all that old line-drawing and dot matrix pron.

Maybe your personal version of Pong.
All kidding aside, I can relate. I wouldn't want to get rid of anything until I had investigated exactly what it was or exhausted all ideas to use it or repurpose it.

[DrGonz78]

My theory is this: If you have old floppy discs that you haven't needed or thought about for over a decade, what possible useful data could they contain? That, plus they only held 360kB - 1.2mB of data, so if there are pictures, they are going to be horrible resolution. Personally, I'd run them through a shredder for safety and be done with them.

Yeah I am helping my 96 year old grandmother clean up her house. I came across a huge stack of 5.25 floppy disks mostly about microwaves. My grandfather worked for Motorola and they sent him these by mail. I am positive he has a big tower computer around the house. It’s probably in pristine condition too. I know he has a copy of Hunt the Wumpus somewhere and that is priceless!!

[Bill Moore]

I looked at all my old stuff, no 5.25!
Too bad you don't need to read 8", we retired an IBM back in the 90's that was still going. We upgraded to a Win 97 machine with a 2GB hard drive!

[Axtman]

Thanks for everyone's ideas.

I bought him an internal 5-1/4" floppy drive that I found at an electronics recycling store. He is pretty handy with electronics, so finding a cable how to hook it up to a computer, and how to read the drive with software is up to him.

[nosaj]

How about this?

[Tom Phillips]

A big WOW after watching that presentation.
Thanks nosaj

[JP-Stereo]

Hi ! First you will have to determine the Operating System of these floppy.
If you dont have the right OS you will FALSELY being told that the floppies are empty...

At that time there was a few; IBM DOS, Apple, Radio Shack TRS80, Amiga, Comodore 64 etc.

Is there any lable or title written on some of these floppies ?
That may help identifying the OS.

I have some Apple II+ and IIe readers and an IBM for MS DOS.
Good luck !