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5 1/4" floppy drive question



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 10th 06, 02:23 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
JAD
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Posts: 753
Default 5 1/4" floppy drive question


"Jim" wrote in message
...
I have a lot of 5 1/4" floppy disks I would like to copy to CD-R. These
are mostly Quickbasic and PDS 7.1 libraries and source code and such, and
are not generally around any more.

I do not currently have a computer able to read these disks, but have a
couple of 5 1/4" drives w/cables I have saved from computers (mostly 486's

I
suspect) I have salvaged in the past.

Can I install one of these in a WIN98 computer?



Yes, usually the bios will have 51/4 suppport. You may need to select it
from a list in the bios under floppy configuration. I have done it with all
my (why do I have this crap) 5 1/4s software, even run LSL ( 6x 51/4s) from
CD.

I have a couple of these
that were discards/replacements that I grabbed, and they all have 3 1/2"
drives which I don't particularly need. Will a 5 1/4" drive work in place
of the 3 1/2"? What do I need to do to get this working?

I really would like to copy these under Windows, since, if there are
problems reading these old disks, I can use Badcopy Pro or other media
recovery software.

Thanks
Jim




  #2  
Old December 10th 06, 01:17 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Jim
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Posts: 4
Default 5 1/4" floppy drive question

I have a lot of 5 1/4" floppy disks I would like to copy to CD-R. These
are mostly Quickbasic and PDS 7.1 libraries and source code and such, and
are not generally around any more.

I do not currently have a computer able to read these disks, but have a
couple of 5 1/4" drives w/cables I have saved from computers (mostly 486's I
suspect) I have salvaged in the past.

Can I install one of these in a WIN98 computer? I have a couple of these
that were discards/replacements that I grabbed, and they all have 3 1/2"
drives which I don't particularly need. Will a 5 1/4" drive work in place
of the 3 1/2"? What do I need to do to get this working?

I really would like to copy these under Windows, since, if there are
problems reading these old disks, I can use Badcopy Pro or other media
recovery software.

Thanks
Jim


  #3  
Old December 11th 06, 01:01 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Lasse Jensen
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Posts: 22
Default 5 1/4" floppy drive question

Jim wrote:

I have a lot of 5 1/4" floppy disks I would like to copy to CD-R. These
are mostly Quickbasic and PDS 7.1 libraries and source code and such, and
are not generally around any more.

I do not currently have a computer able to read these disks, but have a
couple of 5 1/4" drives w/cables I have saved from computers (mostly 486's
I suspect) I have salvaged in the past.


If you have a cable with 3 or perhaps 5 connectors, you can connect both
drives at the same time. Most 3.5" drives has a IDC connector and most
5.25" a edge connector. The cable twists some of the wires at some point
and the drive placed after the twist will be your A: drive and the one
before B:.

Can I install one of these in a WIN98 computer? I have a couple of these
that were discards/replacements that I grabbed, and they all have 3 1/2"
drives which I don't particularly need. Will a 5 1/4" drive work in place
of the 3 1/2"? What do I need to do to get this working?


Yes. Change settings in your BIOS setup.

I really would like to copy these under Windows, since, if there are
problems reading these old disks, I can use Badcopy Pro or other media
recovery software.


DOS formatted disks from after version 2.0 (i think) uses FAT, which is
readable under Win98, and a lot of other operating systems.

Are you aware that 5.25" floppys can be formatted to various sizes,
depending on the drive you use? The most common are 360 kb and 1.2 mb. 1.2
mb drives can read 360 kb floppys, but they are more prone to read/write
errors than 360 kb drives.

--
Lasse Jensen [fafler at g mail dot com]
Linux, the choice of a GNU generation.
  #4  
Old December 12th 06, 03:07 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Man-wai Chang
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Posts: 580
Default 5 1/4" floppy drive question

Jim wrote:
I have a lot of 5 1/4" floppy disks I would like to copy to CD-R. These
are mostly Quickbasic and PDS 7.1 libraries and source code and such, and
are not generally around any more.


I got a whole box of 5.25" original software disks. Don't know what to
do with them.... most of them have been oxidized or eaten by fungi...

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