The floppy disk is an obsolescent magnetic storage medium. Came in several sizes, including 8", 5.25" (both obsolete), and 3.5", which remained in use for many years.
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Old Technologies About Floppy
I have a floppy disk with an unknown FS-(FileSystem). I want to make a copy from it but I can't because both Windows and Linux seem to be unable to read from it.
I tried many of the most popular apps ...
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2answers
113 views
How to tell double-density vs. high-density in 5.25" floppies?
I recently found a box of old 5.25" floppies. Is there a way to tell the double-density (360K) 5.25" ones from the high-density (1.2M) ones when the disks do not have any markings? It looks like the ...
3
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1answer
142 views
Can a magnet be used to fix an “unformattable” floppy disk?
Sometimes a floppy disk (or other magnetic media like it) won’t read or write properly. Specifically, a format won’t work an gives various errors such as Unable to write track 0 or opening the disk in ...
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1answer
88 views
Getting position of track and sector in 'dd'-created floppy image
I got some floppy images (original DOS 6.22 und FreeDOS 1.44 MB boot disks) created using the *nix ddcommand that work fine when used in a virtual environment.
Now I want to understand the structure ...
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1answer
104 views
floppy disk controller mobo no connector RAID XP
I want to install a floppy disk drive, but my new ASUS P8Z68-V LX mobo does not have the floppy drive connection pins on it. What can I do? Is there an adapter? Or does a USB-floppy work at XP ...
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1answer
82 views
Create floppy disk image with FreeBSD
So I don't have a usb floppy drive for my laptop, but oddly enough, I find myself wishing I did now. I do have an old machine with a floppy drive running FreeBSD 8.2, so I thought I might just use it ...
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1answer
42 views
Multiple /dev entries for the floppy drive, can not write to drive
I have an old computer that I am trying to use to write to a floppy. It is running Ubuntu 10.10 and is a Dell. Every time I try to mount the floppy drive, it fails (probably because I don't know the ...
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4answers
106 views
Install Linux on this Computer
I have an old desktop computer which I am trying to install Linux to. It looks Dell-ish to me. So far I have tried Linux LiveDVD (I have no LiveCDs) and the computer only has a CD drive. The BIOS is ...
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2answers
512 views
How to create bootable floppy disk images (.img)
I am thinking of creating my own OS. I downloaded bochs for a test machine, and now I need a 'floppy' to boot from (it boots from .img files). I am looking for free software to create bootable disk ...
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4answers
587 views
Reading old 5.25" floppies
Summary: Having problems reading some old 5.25" floppies. Looking for advice on what else I can try before declaring the disks un-retrievable and giving-up.
Details:
I recently found a box of old ...
0
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1answer
271 views
How to image a floppy on Win98/Dos for Virtualbox?
I need to make an image of a floppy disk containing Dos drivers to use in VirtualBox. Is there to do it in the Win98 command line environment?
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2answers
266 views
Can I use Windows to write Mac floppy disk format?
For fun, I'm trying to use an Apple PowerBook 5300c (Mac OS 7.5.2) to do some programming. I've found the software I want to use (thanks to some answers on SO) but I'm unfamiliar with these formats ...
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2answers
441 views
Floppy Drive clicking problem
After installing drivers for samsung phone ("Kies" from samsung vebsite), the floppy drive started to clicking when windows is on. This is not my computer. So what can be the problem?
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1answer
86 views
How can I recover files from a Mac floppy?
My mother has those 3 Monotype floppy disks for Mac with fonts on them that she would like to recover. However, the only Mac we still have that has a floppy drive is a Macintosh SE, and while it works ...
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2answers
181 views
How to make a floppy image and overwrite the MBR
I am trying to make a floppy image with a working file system so that I can test a 2 stage boot loader. When I attempt to mount the floppy and then cp the second binary over to it, mount gets all ...
2
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1answer
105 views
Service for retrieving data from old Macintosh floppies
I have a bunch of old Mac floppies, from whatever System was common in 1995. I've been wanting to get this data off of these floppies for some time but feet dragging has led to the current state ...
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2answers
262 views
What to do with old floppy drives? [closed]
I have found a floppy drive lying around. However, as all my computers are connected to the net, I won't be needing it. What would be your recommendations for it, especially if I bump into situations ...
2
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4answers
153 views
How to start DOS on a PC with just HDD (no FDD/CD/USB drives)
Would making a first partition (which FAT?) of 1,44 MB with a bootable image of DOS start the system on a laptop's HDD? or in other words Can one start a laptop without FDD/CD/USB with just ...
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4answers
550 views
Formatting a 5.25" floppy disk
So after the massive trouble of finding a 5.25" floppy drive and a connecting it up, then changing the BIOS so it's set as my A: drive, I tried to format a couple of high-density 1.2MB floppy disks ...
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1answer
169 views
Combining several boot floppy disks into one HD floppy
I have a bit of an obsession with old operating systems, and while teaching myself to use UNIX and about operating systems I came across Minix 1.1. I want to install this on an old Dell setup, and ...
0
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1answer
57 views
Getting a Macintosh Plus up and running…?
I found an old Mac Plus, and when I turned it on, it had a flashing image of a floppy drive on the screen. Does that mean I have to have a OS floppy? Or can it only be run using an empty one?
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3answers
397 views
How can I install ubuntu with no cd drive or usb-bootup
I have a very old pc (Dell optiplex g150) with a floppy drive, a harddisk and some usb ports. Now the bios does not seem to support to boot from usb drive.
I want to install ubuntu server. Is it ...
2
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1answer
348 views
Restoring ancient zip file spanning floppy disks: pkzipfix equivalents?
I'm about to attempt something odd, and before I wasted time going down the wrong paths, I thought I'd see if anyone here has done this before. I have a zip file created in DOS (in 1997?) with pkzip ...
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3answers
1k views
Universal Floppy controller for USB
HI, I have an old 5.25" floppy drive and I'd like to conect it to my computer. Now, I could open the case and install the drive, of course, but I'm seeking a more convenient solution.
There are ...
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3answers
1k views
How do I install a 3.5" floppy on a new motherboard?
I'm trying to install a floppy drive in my new desktop.
I don't know much about IDE connections/cables but it seems there are multiple types. I've seen some with pins in the middle taken out and ...
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3answers
214 views
Best Floppy Drive for reading old floppies
I have a stack of about 30 floppy disks (3.5" type) that have some old childhood memories on them. However, I'm putting them into my random "cheapo" USB floppy drive and every single one is coming ...
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1answer
129 views
Acer Aspire One - Floppy
If I buy an external USB floppy disk drive will my laptop be able to boot from it?
I believe the model is AOA150, it has ZG5 written as model on the bottom also.
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2answers
243 views
Can a Double-Density Floppy drive be swapped out for a High-Density drive?
I'm trying to fix the floppy drive in my Roland MC-500. The floppy drive inside is a Matsushita DDF3-1 which doesn't seem to be in production anymore. The DDF3-2 is still available, however it is an ...
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2answers
114 views
install software that comes on 3.5 inch floppies
How do I install software which comes on 3.5 inch floppies onto a laptop that does no have a floppy drive?
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2answers
178 views
Why would Windows 7 suddenly show it has a floppy drive that it doesn't have?
All of a sudden my Windows 7 machine shows it has a Floppy Disk Drive (A:) although the machine physically doesn't have a floppy drive and never has.
What is the reason for this and how can I remove ...
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3answers
235 views
Removing floppy drive icon from My computer and send to menu
I don't have a floppy drive and still my computer shows floppy drive in My computer as well as in Send To menu [Right click - >send to-> Desktop or Floppy drive]
So how do I remove or hide this ...
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2answers
225 views
Dell Dimension l866r
I'm using an old Dell Dimension l866R desktop w/a floppy drive detected error upon boot. There is a floppy drive in the case but it's not connected to power supply nor motherboard. None of the keys ...
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1answer
287 views
USB floppy drive that is bus-powered and supports both 2HD and 2DD diskettes
I'm looking for an external USB floppy drive to serve both as a replacement for the broken one in my old laptop and as a floppy drive I can carry with me.
Google and Amazon have helped me narrow down ...
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7answers
2k views
What to do with old floppy disks? [closed]
I have hundreds of old floppy disks deep in my cabinet. I don't think I'm gonna use them in the future.
What can I do with them except just throwing to garbage can?
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2answers
379 views
How can I use my 3.5” disk drive without having to insert a floppy in my 5.25” drive as well?
I have some troubles to correctly install a 5.25" floppy drive in a old (1999) computer.
The drives are set this way:
A: 3.5" floppy @ 1.44 MB
B: 5.25" floppy @ 1.2 MB (Panasonic JU-475-2)
C: 30 GB ...
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9answers
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How to create a virtual floppy drive on Windows 7 64-bit
I am trying to install a program which requires me to have a floppy disk in my machine while the installation is going on.
I found a program called Virtual Floppy Drive that allowed me to create the ...
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3answers
399 views
How can I read a floppy disk formatted by Windows 3.1 on Windows XP?
I'm trying to move some files off an 15-year-old PC running Windows 3.1.
I copied them onto a floppy disk that I formatted in Windows 3.1. I tried to read the floppy on a Windows XP machine, but it ...
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1answer
290 views
Erasing a disk that can't be erased or mounted
I had an unmountable floppy image (.img) that contained an operating system I had made and I used disk utility to burn it to a CD. It said that the burn was successful.
I tried to boot it from ...
0
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1answer
222 views
How to properly flash BIOS from floppy boot?
I have a machine with an ECS K7SEM (V3.0C) and I'm trying to flash the BIOS to the newest version so that I can support an AGP 4X video card that I want to install.
So, first, I formatted a floppy ...
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2answers
145 views
Installing 2 floppies on the same controller
Since the Pentium (the first ones) era all the motherboard I've used only had one floppy I/O controller (and two IDE controllers and lately 2-8 SATA).
I'm currently building a vintage PC and I want ...
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3answers
187 views
Make a bootable cd from a floppy
I have followed this tutorial http://wiki.osdev.org/Bare_bones to build a simple C kernel and boot it successfully. But, how to convert the floppy image to CD image to use it with my real PC?
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3answers
304 views
What is the replacement of the floppy
While CD (and to an lesser extend DVD) disks have reached the price-point of the floppy, they have one significant downside, it is WORM (Write-Once Read-Many) media, allowing it to be used only one ...
3
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6answers
970 views
Are floppy disks still used in the software world? [closed]
just reading the bbc report on how millions of floppy disks are purchased each month in the UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8646699.stm
Does anyone still use floppies?
Is this a legit ...
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1answer
379 views
How can I burn a .bin file to a flash drive and a floppy?
I'm looking for a small free utility without UI for burning a .bin file to a flash drive. I need floppy support too but I don't care to use another tool for that (again, no UI, just command line).
...
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5answers
732 views
What Linux fits on a floppy disk?
Which Linux distributions fit on a 1.44 MB bootable floppy disk?
Where can the .img image files be downloaded?
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2answers
340 views
How to read Mac floppy on a PC?
I have a floppy made on a Mac years ago. I'd like to pull some files from it, but Macs haven't had floppies in forever, so I don't have one. I tried an app called MacOpener, but it didn't seem to ...
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2answers
144 views
Need to get a file written to a floppy
I asked this question over on SO. I have tried
dd if=kernel.sys of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1
to get this file to write to the floppy. It is a kernel shell that must be written to the sector immediately ...
4
votes
1answer
401 views
Why won't the floppy mount?
The 1.44Meg floppy won't mount in my Nautilus file browser. When I try to mount it, it says there is no media in the drive. Yet, I can write to the floppy through the terminal using the 'cp' command. ...
2
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2answers
862 views
How to split file into floppy within install any software in DOS environment?
I want to split a 2.6 mb file to floppy, is there any dos cmd to help me in pure dos environment. (no application is allowed to install)
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4answers
9k views
How do I burn .img files onto floppy disk?
I want to "burn" 3 DOS 6.22 floppy disks. I have 3 .img files but I can't "burn" these .img files onto a floppy. I get the message that the file is too big for the target.
What tool can I use (I used ...
