Re: [NTLK] OT - I need an old 5 1/4" floppy drive to recover old PC data -- Any ideas?

From: Andrei Chichak (newton_at_chichak.ca)
Date: Sun Nov 13 2005 - 10:54:28 PST


At 10:09 AM 11/13/2005, you wrote:
>Last year, I found an old box of 5.25" floppy disks from my undergraduate=
=20
>days at the University of Detroit.

Old? Wadda ya mean "OLD"? The dead sea scrolls are old! The Indian=20
subcontinent is old. 5 1/4" floppies are not old.

Go down to your local used computer shop, they'll probably give you one.=20
The trick is to get the interface cable with it. Plug it into a modern=20
computer and away you go.

>These disks hold numerous notes, old term papers (History-related topics),=
=20
>and some of my Smithsonian research internship work. As if the challenge=
=20
>to recover and digitize this data was not great enough, I'm recalling that=
=20
>I probably used an old version of WordPerfect and a program called=20
>WordStar (This was before folks were actively developing pretty GUI=
 programs).

If you can't get something like Word to understand the format, the data is=
=20
still in the files. With some judicious use of things like notepad or=20
perhaps writing a simple program, the text can be extracted. You will=20
probably loose the formatting, but the content is still there.

>I'm thinking that IF I had an old 5.25" floppy drive for a PC, and IF I=20
>could somehow connect it to a serial port on my Windows 98 desktop=20
>machine, I MIGHT be able to extract some of the data.

This would be a be a bit harder since these sorts of devices tended to hang=
=20
off of the parallel port and have drivers that were quite specific to the=20
devices and the OS in use.

>What I'm thinking is to perhaps copy the files, change their extension to=
=20
>.txt or .rtf, and then extract what data I could to save for posterity.

There you go. Now look for the oldest computer geek you know that has a=20
basement full of "legacy" machines, or plays around with hardware in his=20
spare time, or a linux geek with no money. If all else fails pack up your=20
floppies, hop in the car and head west-north-west for 2 timezones and I'll=
=20
plop a drive into one of my boat anchors and help you out.

> I have no idea IF a peripheral 5.25" floppy drive ever existed, but I=20
> need one to save my data! Can anybody help? Thanks in advance.

No sweat, if it wasn't for the distances.

>Matt K.
>Detroit, Michigan, USA

Andrei

------------------------------
Andrei Chichak

4024-120 Street
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
T6J 1X8
(780)434-6266

Lat: 53=B0 28' 40" N
Lon: 113=B0 32' 27" W =20

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