Looking for 5 1/4 floppies

[KC2RPP]

Im looking for anyone that has 5 1/4 inch floppy disks that would be happy to donate them to me so i can use them with my Apple IIe. I dont have any 5 1/4s but i have the drives and im dying to get a simple floppy program running on the thing.

[kd8dey]

Been quite a while since 5 1/4 floppies were produced. they only last several years before they deteriorate beyond use. most likely not be able to find any of value. I threw a rather large box of them away since everything on them is so outdated now.

[N3ATS]

If you only would have asked two weeks ago. I threw out at least a hundred of them at my old office.

[kd8dey]

If you only would have asked two weeks ago. I threw out at least a hundred of them at my old office.

Dumped 2 egg crates full.

[WØTKX]

Right on, a IIe.

You can get new floppies here... http://www.floppydisk.com

If you get donations, you'll want the Double Density, or DD ones. The HD ones won't work. Finiding ones with a (usually white) hub ring would be ideal. The HD ones have a notch on both sides... don't use them. Like this picture, it's not clear, but it has no HD Notch in the upper left, just the write protect notch on the right. (I corrected this).

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/5/50/200px-Floppy_disk_5.25_inch.JPG

Do you have this website bookmarked? Apple II and III (http://www.vintagemacworld.com/aiimain.html)




003- How can I tell the difference between unlabeled
DD and HD diskettes?

3.5" HD (1.4MB) diskettes come with a square notch in the upper left
corner. DD (800kB) 3.5" diskettes do not come with this notch. In the early
days of PC computing, some PC users punched or drilled notch holes in DD
diskettes and used them as HD diskettes. If a 3.5" diskette has a circular
notch in the upper left corner, it is likely to be a DD diskette.

DD 5.25" (360kB) diskettes look very much like HD 5.25" (1.2MB)
diskettes; however, HD diskettes seem to almost never have a hub ring,
while DD diskettes usually do. The hub ring may be white paper, etc. and easy
to spot or cut from the same material as the diskette and barely noticeable.
This difference has been mentioned by Peter Norton (of Norton Utilities fame)
in one of his books.

The hub ring makes it easier for the Apple Disk Drive II and other older
DD 5.25" drives to clamp and hold the diskette. Older DD drives also tend to
damage the center when there is no hub. If the hub ring of a DD diskette has
fallen off due to age, it's a good idea to transfer the contents to a new diskette.

Otherwise, about the only observable difference is that DD diskette surfaces
often exhibit a more brownish cast whereas HD diskette surfaces are generally
dark grey or black.

The surest test for 5.25" diskettes is to place the diskette into an Apple
Disk II 5.25" drive and try to do a DOS 3.3 format. If it formats okay, it is
almost certainly a DD diskette. (This test will not always work with the newer
40-track drives. Some of these can get through a format with an HD diskette.)

[kd6nig]

Can't you cover the notch and just format it low density? I thought you could.

[WØTKX]

Can't you cover the notch and just format it low density? I thought you could.

Nope, the older drive can't develop enough umph to magnetize the high density media. It might act like it's going to work, but it doesn't.

Needs to be "coerced" a bit stronger to change it's magnetic state, and successfully "retain it". ;) ;)

The format option settings available on most OS's let you do weird stuff with floppy formatting on later drives. But it's not a reliable thing to do with your data... useful sometimes in a pinch.

We have USB thingamabobs now, thank goodness. :lol:

[kd6nig]

Ah ok. I wasn't sure. I remember formatting 3.5" ones for 360k sometimes, but that was different-you just specified it, though I think there was a hole involved on those too. But its been a few years since I even owned a computer with a floppy drive, much less even used it.

I remember doing a backup for my uncle once. His 80MB drive took close to 60 5 1/4 high density floppies to back up. Talk about a way to kill an afternoon :) His new machine came with a tape drive, it was amazing.

Oh, the good old days. I have a 400MB drive in a box somewhere too that I kept.

[KC2RPP]

If you only would have asked two weeks ago. I threw out at least a hundred of them at my old office.
I was still banned two weeks ago. But keep in mind, if you have any old computer junk that you are gonna ditch just send it my way. I like collecting old computer junk.


Ah ok. I wasn't sure. I remember formatting 3.5" ones for 360k sometimes, but that was different-you just specified it, though I think there was a hole involved on those too. But its been a few years since I even owned a computer with a floppy drive, much less even used it.

I remember doing a backup for my uncle once. His 80MB drive took close to 60 5 1/4 high density floppies to back up. Talk about a way to kill an afternoon :) His new machine came with a tape drive, it was amazing.

Oh, the good old days. I have a 400MB drive in a box somewhere too that I kept.

I have a 500 mb hard drive that i keep loaded with Win95 and all the drivers to work on a computer that i have. Im still trying to get my hands on a old Win 3.1 machine. I have loads of software designed for 3.1 but no 3.1 to put it on.

The only 5 1/4 that i really really really want the most is the Oregon Trail. I remember playing that game in 3rd grade.

[kd6nig]

You'd think they would have that on a DOS game emulation site or something. You know, where you run an emulator and download the game.

But actually that may even be close to pre-DOS. Way early DOS. The last time I played that game was on a bright yellow monochrome monitor :)

[WØTKX]

I think he might be running ProDOS... or Apple Basic, if he has no floppies... :lol:

[W3WN]

I have a 500 mb hard drive that i keep loaded with Win95 and all the drivers to work on a computer that i have. Im still trying to get my hands on a old Win 3.1 machine. I have loads of software designed for 3.1 but no 3.1 to put it on.

The only 5 1/4 that i really really really want the most is the Oregon Trail. I remember playing that game in 3rd grade.
Do you really want an "old Win 3.1 machine" ??

I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 which at one time had 3.1 on it. During the bulk of the time I was using it, it ran Win98SE, and it presently has Win2000 on it. I'd planned to use it for some other things, but it looks like it's about to become a dust collecting spare (my company is planning to replace all 100+ of our XP machines in the next few months, so I'll be able to buy the old machines for about $50 each and upgrade everything in the house).

If you're serious, we can talk.

[kd6nig]

I have a 500 mb hard drive that i keep loaded with Win95 and all the drivers to work on a computer that i have. Im still trying to get my hands on a old Win 3.1 machine. I have loads of software designed for 3.1 but no 3.1 to put it on.

The only 5 1/4 that i really really really want the most is the Oregon Trail. I remember playing that game in 3rd grade.
Do you really want an "old Win 3.1 machine" ??

I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 which at one time had 3.1 on it. During the bulk of the time I was using it, it ran Win98SE, and it presently has Win2000 on it. I'd planned to use it for some other things, but it looks like it's about to become a dust collecting spare (my company is planning to replace all 100+ of our XP machines in the next few months, so I'll be able to buy the old machines for about $50 each and upgrade everything in the house).

If you're serious, we can talk.

I read an article somewhere yesterday that MS has finally officially stopped supporting (completely) Windows 3.1. Supposedly there are quite a few older systems though (like simple interfaces) that run it, but you never see it because when the device is turned on it just loads whatever program on top of it and works.

RIP 3.1 :)

[KC2RPP]

I have a 500 mb hard drive that i keep loaded with Win95 and all the drivers to work on a computer that i have. Im still trying to get my hands on a old Win 3.1 machine. I have loads of software designed for 3.1 but no 3.1 to put it on.

The only 5 1/4 that i really really really want the most is the Oregon Trail. I remember playing that game in 3rd grade.
Do you really want an "old Win 3.1 machine" ??

I have a Compaq Deskpro 4000 which at one time had 3.1 on it. During the bulk of the time I was using it, it ran Win98SE, and it presently has Win2000 on it. I'd planned to use it for some other things, but it looks like it's about to become a dust collecting spare (my company is planning to replace all 100+ of our XP machines in the next few months, so I'll be able to buy the old machines for about $50 each and upgrade everything in the house).

If you're serious, we can talk.

Yes im looking for an old win 3.1 machine. How about donating it to me.....i want it mainly because i have over 40 software disks for win 3.1. I mean since its gonna collect dust. BTW what are the specs on the machines that your companys get a read of?

[W3WN]

Yes im looking for an old win 3.1 machine. How about donating it to me.....i want it mainly because i have over 40 software disks for win 3.1. I mean since its gonna collect dust. BTW what are the specs on the machines that your companys get a read of?

The machines to be replaced are Compaq D220 series mini towers, all in the neighborhood of 2 GHz and up processors, all with about 1 - 2 GB of RAM. Hard drives are all around 40 - 80 GB, but we store data on the network servers, so that's kind of irrelevant at work. No monitors, we hanging on to the flat screens to go dual monitor on the new boxes coming in. There are going to be roughly 100 of them. I will be allowed to buy some (but not all!), along with everyone else. I'm hoping to get my hands on 3 or 4 -- wife's computer, daughter's computer, my "work" computer, the existing shack computers are good enough for what they need to do.

Before we start serious talk about swapping machines or whatever, let me fire the old beast up and make sure it works. (It should!) I'll also look around, I should have my Windows 3.1 CD around somewhere (yes, they did make one, or at least some of the OEM's did) and make sure it can load OK.

[n2ize]

Actually I do have a bunch of 5.25 inch floppies lying around. But I suspect they have probably deteriorated and may no longer be any good for storage/retreival.

Some of them are very old single sides single density floppies that were formatted for use on an old Atari 800. The rest are all old DSDD types formatted for the early IBM PC XT/AT, I might also have a couple of 5.25 inch drives for those types of floppies, including drivers for the Atari, Commodore and IBM PX XT/AT.

If you're interested let me know and I'll see if I have anything worthwhile among my old computer junk. I seriously doubt the integrity of any actual 5.25 inch discs however.

[WØTKX]

Check the media carefully and see if it's coming loose from the backing disk... if it's not flaking off, it may be ok. Using and old school bulk tape eraser will really help to wipe the old ones out for sure. Comes in handy for degaussing an old school TV screen too...

http://www.bigdmc.com/blank-it-2.JPG

[KC2RPP]

Before we start serious talk about swapping machines or whatever, let me fire the old beast up and make sure it works. (It should!) I'll also look around, I should have my Windows 3.1 CD around somewhere (yes, they did make one, or at least some of the OEM's did) and make sure it can load OK.

Whats the status on the 3.1 machine? Also what are the specs for it?

>>>Almost forgot. Can i get a pic or two of it

[KC2RPP]

Hey W3WN u find anything out about that old 3.1 machine that u have yet?

[N2RJ]

Been quite a while since 5 1/4 floppies were produced. they only last several years before they deteriorate beyond use.

I had some that we bought in 1987, that I was able to use in 1999. Those were memorex. Most of the old floppies worked, and I was able to load the programs off of them. However, the disclaimer is that they were double density, and the commodore 1541 was a single density (and single sided) drive.

[W3MPS]

5 1/4 floppies?????

Wow, and I thought I was crazy for playing around with an old copy of CP/M...

But anyway, If you really want an old box, download Microsoft Virtual PC. It's free.
Install your OS of choice; however, I've discovered that Linux doesn't like a virtual environment.

I'm running DOS 6.22 and Win 3.11 for Work groups on it. Does a great job running my old DOS games. Leisure Suit Larry.... giggity giggity, alright..... going back to scoring pixelated, circa 1986 babes....

[WØTKX]

5 1/4 floppies?????

Wow, and I thought I was crazy for playing around with an old copy of CP/M...



In the old days we used to PIP our files. That's the way it was, and we liked it! :mrgreen:

[M0GLO]

Been quite a while since 5 1/4 floppies were produced. they only last several years before they deteriorate beyond use.

I had some that we bought in 1987, that I was able to use in 1999. Those were memorex. Most of the old floppies worked, and I was able to load the programs off of them. However, the disclaimer is that they were double density, and the commodore 1541 was a single density (and single sided) drive.

They'll work for a few passes. I wouldn't keep anything I wanted on them though, it's a good bet that the coating is flaking off every read head pass.

[N2RJ]

They'll work for a few passes. I wouldn't keep anything I wanted on them though, it's a good bet that the coating is flaking off every read head pass.

Worked for quite a lot more than a few passes, for me anyway.

[M0GLO]

They'll work for a few passes. I wouldn't keep anything I wanted on them though, it's a good bet that the coating is flaking off every read head pass.

Worked for quite a lot more than a few passes, for me anyway.
That is cool, those things should be useless plastic by now.
Wonder if Memorex CD's will last like that, they are supposed to go to hell after a dozen or so years.

[N2RJ]

They'll work for a few passes. I wouldn't keep anything I wanted on them though, it's a good bet that the coating is flaking off every read head pass.

Worked for quite a lot more than a few passes, for me anyway.
That is cool, those things should be useless plastic by now.
Wonder if Memorex CD's will last like that, they are supposed to go to hell after a dozen or so years.

Still have burned CDs from 1998, but they are sony, probably manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.

They're not the photo dye CDs of today though, they're the original gold alloy ones so they may last a longer time.