
Be sure you know what to expect, as in any transaction. They will presumably hand you the files for some fee, and for an additional fee may be able to "convert" the files for use with modern "applications" (software). They will presumably offer to "convert the disks" on some kind of terms, and then process your diskettes for you. In the 21st century, you have four choices to accomplish the above goals.Ĭhoice one: contact a "data recovery service" (or find some vintage-computer techie) and tell them everything you can find out, about the origins of those diskettes, including the programs and operating system(s) used to produce them. You can't just "plug in" something and it magically "works". A few people want to read really ODD formats - hard sectored, M2FM, and so on.įolks, this is not a "plug and play" project.

Some people want to read CP/M or other non-MS-DOS 5.25" or 3.5" diskettes, or old Mac 400K or 800K 3.5" Mac diskettes, on a Windows PC.

Please sell me a complete system, or tell me where to get one." Some people ask: "I have an 8-inch drive, sell me the power adapter and cable for use with my modern computer." Often they have no idea how this might be accomplished beyond those statements. Some people ask: "I want to read 5.25-inch or 8-inch diskettes on my PC/Windows/Linux machine. "I want to read old diskettes on my PC/Windows/OSX/Linux machine" To contact me, or for ordering information follow this link. You may need a Web search, to find all my Web pages of interest on this subject. On another Web page, I have a lot of information about floppy drives, diskette media, and various issues. This page is about ways to read and write "old" floppy diskettes (disks from systems of the 1970's and 80's). This Web page last updated dated Jan 10 2019.

How to read and write old floppy disks How to read and write old floppy disks
