need old 5 1/4 floppy on XP

[Smiles]

Good day I have been given 2000 old 5.25floppy diskswith family records
on them with out rebuilding a W98 box is there a way to set up XP to
read the drive

thanks

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Good day I have been given 2000 old 5.25floppy diskswith family records
on them with out rebuilding a W98 box is there a way to set up XP to
read the drive

Just install a 5.25" drive. XP should see it and read it without a
problem.

But it will take a *long* time to read 2000 diskettes.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>

| On Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:54:21 -0400, Smiles


| Just install a 5.25" drive. XP should see it and read it without a
| problem.

| But it will take a *long* time to read 2000 diskettes.

Be hard to find and have an interface for one.

 

[philo]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>

| On Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:54:21 -0400, Smiles



| Just install a 5.25" drive. XP should see it and read it without a
| problem.

| But it will take a *long* time to read 2000 diskettes.

Be hard to find and have an interface for one.

I have a box of 5.25" drives up in my attic

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>

| On Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:54:21 -0400, Smiles



| Just install a 5.25" drive. XP should see it and read it without a
| problem.

| But it will take a *long* time to read 2000 diskettes.

Be hard to find and have an interface for one.

I just did a web search for 5.25" floppy drive. I quickly found
several places that sold them.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>

| On Mon, 5 Apr 2010 16:10:58 -0400, "David H. Lipman"



| I just did a web search for 5.25" floppy drive. I quickly found
| several places that sold them.

Cool.

Now he needs a floppy interface and BIOS that can handle that old standard.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>

| On Mon, 5 Apr 2010 16:10:58 -0400, "David H. Lipman"




| I just did a web search for 5.25" floppy drive. I quickly found
| several places that sold them.

Cool.

Now he needs a floppy interface and BIOS that can handle that old standard.

I don't pretend to be a hardware expert, but as far as I know, almost
all motherboards can do this. My motherboard, a GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P
LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard, which is a pretty recent
one, can.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>





| I don't pretend to be a hardware expert, but as far as I know, almost
| all motherboards can do this. My motherboard, a GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P
| LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard, which is a pretty recent
| one, can.



New systems like from Dell don't even come with a Floppy drive anymore and those that do
have a single interface cable for the 3 1/2" floppy. However, it is a completely
different cabling for the 5 1/4" drive.

See cable in below...
http://www.nullmodem.com/Floppy.htm

 

[Steve Hayes]

New systems like from Dell don't even come with a Floppy drive anymore and those that do
have a single interface cable for the 3 1/2" floppy. However, it is a completely
different cabling for the 5 1/4" drive.

Not really.

I have a floppy and a stiffie drive on my XP machine, using one cable, with
the stiffie as A and the floppy as B.

I had less trouble reading 15-year-old floppy disks than I did with two month
old stiffie disks.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>






| I don't pretend to be a hardware expert, but as far as I know, almost
| all motherboards can do this. My motherboard, a GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P
| LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard, which is a pretty recent
| one, can.



New systems like from Dell don't even come with a Floppy drive anymore

Yes, I know. Almost no system comes with one except a custom-built
system where someone wants a floppy.

and those that do
have a single interface cable for the 3 1/2" floppy. However, it is a completely
different cabling for the 5 1/4" drive.

But that I didn't know. Thanks for the info.

However can't an old cable be used to connect a 5.25" floppy drive to
almost any motherboard? Or is the motherboard connector different from
what it used to be back in the 5.25" days?

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>

| On Mon, 5 Apr 2010 22:41:26 -0400, "David H. Lipman"


| Yes, I know. Almost no system comes with one except a custom-built
| system where someone wants a floppy.




| But that I didn't know. Thanks for the info.

| However can't an old cable be used to connect a 5.25" floppy drive to
| almost any motherboard? Or is the motherboard connector different from
| what it used to be back in the 5.25" days?



The cable to the motherboard or floppy controller hasn't changed. The only questions
are...
1. Does the end user have the appropriate cable

2. Does/will the BIOS recognize a 1.2MB 5.25" floppy drive.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

From: "Ken Blake, MVP" <[email protected]>




| But that I didn't know. Thanks for the info.

| However can't an old cable be used to connect a 5.25" floppy drive to
| almost any motherboard? Or is the motherboard connector different from
| what it used to be back in the 5.25" days?



The cable to the motherboard or floppy controller hasn't changed. The only questions
are...
1. Does the end user have the appropriate cable

Well, OK. But if you don't have a 5.25 floppy cable, you can buy one
inexpensively, just as you can buy a 5.25 floppy drive inexpensively.
That's not really an issue, as far as I'm concerned.

2. Does/will the BIOS recognize a 1.2MB 5.25" floppy drive.

OK, if the BIOS doesn't recognize it, that of course is a real issue.
I had assumed that if the BIOS recognized 3.25" floppy drives, it also
recognized 5.25" floppy drives. But perhaps I'm wrong. I don't want
to take the time to restart and check right now, but I'll try to
remember to check the next time I power off.

Thanks again.

 

[ggull]

I'd just like to say thanks for this interesting discussion. I've got some
old 5.25 inchers I'd like to grab the data off of someday, even some old
copy protected games it might be fun to play.

But a related question. Is there such a thing as an external, say USB,
5.25" floppy drive? (I use an external 3.5" floppy when I need it.)
or would it be easy to cobble something like that together?

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "ggull" <[email protected]>

| I'd just like to say thanks for this interesting discussion. I've got some
| old 5.25 inchers I'd like to grab the data off of someday, even some old
| copy protected games it might be fun to play.

| But a related question. Is there such a thing as an external, say USB,
| 5.25" floppy drive? (I use an external 3.5" floppy when I need it.)
| or would it be easy to cobble something like that together?


I couldn't find a 1.2MB 5.25" USB floppy drive.

 

[JD]

I'd just like to say thanks for this interesting discussion. I've got some
old 5.25 inchers I'd like to grab the data off of someday, even some old
copy protected games it might be fun to play.

But a related question. Is there such a thing as an external, say USB,
5.25" floppy drive? (I use an external 3.5" floppy when I need it.)
or would it be easy to cobble something like that together?

Do a search on Ask.com (or your favorite search engine) and see what you
can find. If you have the 5.25 drive and a USB enclosure you might be
able to engineer something if you can find the right cables to connect
the 5.25 drive to the USB enclosure.

 

[LVTravel]

Do a search on Ask.com (or your favorite search engine) and see what you
can find. If you have the 5.25 drive and a USB enclosure you might be able
to engineer something if you can find the right cables to connect the 5.25
drive to the USB enclosure.

The USB enclosure method won't work. Reason is that the electronics in the
drive are designed for PATA (EIDE) or SATA drives. The cabling and
electronics are entirely different. There are USB 3.5" external floppy
drives available but I have never seen one for 5.25" floppies.

 

[LVTravel]

The USB enclosure method won't work. Reason is that the electronics in
the drive are designed for PATA (EIDE) or SATA drives. The cabling and
electronics are entirely different. There are USB 3.5" external floppy
drives available but I have never seen one for 5.25" floppies.

OOPS, should have read "Reason is that the electronics in the drive
ENCLOSURE are designed for PATA .... drives. The cabling and electronics in
a floppy drive are entirely different." Should have read my own post before
sending.

 

[JD]

OOPS, should have read "Reason is that the electronics in the drive
ENCLOSURE are designed for PATA .... drives. The cabling and electronics
in a floppy drive are entirely different." Should have read my own post
before sending.

My mother told me once that a sure sign of insanity was when one begins
to answer themselves but I guess this is entirely different.

I am glad you cleared that up.

Could one change out the 3.5 floppy drive for a 5.25 floppy drive in the
USB external floppy drive? Would that cabling and/or electronics be
compatable?

May be moot since the OP hasn't replied.

 

[Anthony Buckland]

My mother told me once that a sure sign of insanity was when one begins to
answer themselves but I guess this is entirely different.

I am glad you cleared that up.

Could one change out the 3.5 floppy drive for a 5.25 floppy drive in the
USB external floppy drive? Would that cabling and/or electronics be
compatable?

May be moot since the OP hasn't replied.

An alternative approach might be to try and find an old computer
with a 5.25 drive on it. Enough of us don't throw stuff out quickly
enough that one should be essentially valueless atticware
somewhere.

 

[trashcan]

An alternative approach might be to try and find an old computer
with a 5.25 drive on it. Enough of us don't throw stuff out quickly
enough that one should be essentially valueless atticware
somewhere.

I had a 1.2MB 5 1/4" on the first box I installed ZP Pro on and it
did work, at least then. We're 3 service packs and a dumptruck load of
hot fixes down the line and I don't have that box any more, or an old
floppy to see if it still works...good luck!!