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Archives => 2007 => Topic started by: sandbox on August 21, 2007, 05:47:11 PM

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on August 21, 2007, 05:47:11 PM

A friend wrote asking me where to find one, I've not seen one in some time.

Has anyone seen this drive in their travels?

Thanks

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: daryl66 on August 21, 2007, 06:04:54 PM

I have 2 that connect to an Apple lle. I have the whole system listed as a "Giveaway" on a couple of forums. I would be happy to break it up and send one of the drives anwhere you like. Just shipping costs. They both work just fine.

Daryl

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: gunug on August 21, 2007, 06:11:01 PM

I "likewise" could send you a HD 5-1/4" PC Floppy drive if that is what you need! I'd like to say that I managed to salvage an Apple IIe drive but the horde was too successful at disposing of same!

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on August 22, 2007, 12:05:18 AM

Thanks folks! That’s very generous of you

To make a short story shorter, after the appeal here I received a call from that friend and he said that his local library in Safety Harbor Fl. still has one connected to a PC with windows 2000 and a CD burner. I can’t imagine that there’s a big demand for such a drive but I’m glad to hear that they still exist.

Thanks Again!

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: Gregg on August 22, 2007, 07:42:01 AM

I for one am still frustrated by the decision to discontinue the floppy and zip drives. My G3 has both, but no ability to burn CDs. I cannot easily transfer files to my sons' iMac and iBook. I have a need to do that now, but the iBook is not set up to connect to the internet at home, just at college. The other son lives nearby, so I can e-mail files to him. That's the only way to do it, and obviously, only a few at a time.

I set up file sharing once, with lots of free phone support. I was unable to replicate the feat on my own at a later date, even with notes. You have to do it "just right" I guess.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: krissel on August 22, 2007, 09:27:24 AM

They do make external USB floppy drives which you could attach to the iMac and iBook.

http://www.iomega.com/direct/products/deta...D=1187792657562

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: Parker on August 22, 2007, 10:17:25 AM

how about using a large flash drive??
I was able to pick up a 4gb flash drive for only $30 bucks! They're really cheap at a lot pf places.

Also, the G3's pretty easy to upgrade. Ever consider taking out your old CD drive and putting a CD burner in??

-Parker

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: Gregg on August 22, 2007, 12:21:52 PM

QUOTE(krissel @ Aug 22 2007, 09:27 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They do make external USB floppy drives which you could attach to the iMac and iBook.

Yes, I know. Thanks for the link. Saves me a search if we go that route.

QUOTE(Parker @ Aug 22 2007, 10:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My son has some sort of flash drive. Whether or not it would work on the G3, I wouldn't know.

Never considered replacing the CD ROM drive. Maybe a new iMac would be better?

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on August 23, 2007, 04:49:40 AM

Backing up.....
I received a call earlier tonight and was told that the floppy in the library wasn't there.

So, I'm back to square one. The data on the floppies is most likely PC, so which of the generous offering would work best?

How do they connect?

Can they be connected to a PC and or G3 miniTower?

Will I need cables or software?

Thanks

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: daryl66 on August 23, 2007, 11:55:18 AM

QUOTE(sandbox @ Aug 23 2007, 04:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How do they connect?

Can they be connected to a PC and or G3 miniTower?

Will I need cables or software?

Thanks

SB: The drives that I have each have a permanent cable attached to the drives and the other end looks like a standard rs-232 (25pin) male connector. I do not recall for sure but think that the G3 SCSI connector was the female looking for the male. I cannot answer the software question. Now the bad news. After your post I listed the system on Craigslist as a giveaway and have had 2 inquires and each is suppose to show up today to take the whole system away. We will see. Lets hope GN still has his. On the other hand if they do not show up my offer stands.

Daryl

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on August 23, 2007, 06:08:26 PM

Thanks Daryl, i should contact him anywho.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: daryl66 on August 24, 2007, 07:20:22 PM

QUOTE(sandbox @ Aug 23 2007, 06:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Daryl, i should contact him anywho.

SB I have attempted to respond to your PM but have no confidence that either attempt was successful Please let me know if you got them. 1st and 2nd attempt at PM

Daryl

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on August 24, 2007, 09:19:33 PM

Thanks Daryl, yes i did receive them, and i decided to go for it.
Boy, you have me day dreaming about Idaho. I'm hungry for the Bitterroot, hand caught Salmon, and a cozy teepee outside of Riggins.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: daryl66 on August 24, 2007, 10:50:11 PM

QUOTE(sandbox @ Aug 24 2007, 09:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Daryl, yes i did receive them, and i decided to go for it.
Boy, you have me day dreaming about Idaho. I'm hungry for the Bitterroot, hand caught Salmon, and a cozy teepee outside of Riggins.

Have not been over on the Salmon at all this summer. It has been really hot and the streams are all suffering some. Montana even has shut down some of their rivers to keep from stressing the fish. Beginning to cool off some now so will probably try and hit it in the near future.

Good luck on your endeavor with the drive. Looks like the lle system is heading for a new home.

Daryl

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on September 04, 2007, 01:59:11 PM

a 5.25 inch floppy drive, cable and floppy has arrived at my Sandbox from Lawrance Kansas. Thank you Gunug. I don't know to what machine I'll be connecting it to yet, there seems to be a 34pin cable <to> a 40pin motherboard socket discrepancy in the PC that I need to work out. I haven't looked inside the G3 yet or researched to see if it will work, or looked into possible adapters that would work on any machine.
Ideally, if this drive could plug into a USB adapter I'd be a happy Camper

Anyway, I'll work it out.

Thank again Gunug, it looks to be brand new! It's spotless.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: gunug on September 05, 2007, 07:55:28 AM

I've had some USB Imation drive rigs that the drives have died on but the cables "might" be that way; I'll look around when I get home. The Imation drives were 3-1/2" floppy drives in format but could read a special disk that stored something about 100Megs (like a zipdisk). Nothing in my shop is "spotless!"

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on September 05, 2007, 12:04:59 PM

No worries, I'm just curious. My XP tower has 40pins on the motherboard so I dug out an old Compaq desktop that I had upstairs and it has 34pins, but it won't boot. Error: "I/O subsystem driver failed to load. Either a file in the .\iosubsys subdirectory is corrupt or the system is low on memory."

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272960

So as soon as I figure out what it's problem is maybe I'll get to see what's on the 5.25 disk?

Hey, the Check is with a snail.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: gunug on September 05, 2007, 12:36:29 PM

No hurry; the error you're seeing is indicative of not finding a "bootable" system on the boot device of choice. The floppy I sent isn't a bootable system; at least I don't think it is. The fact of it seeing a device that isn't bootable probably means it at least is seeing a device and media!

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on September 06, 2007, 01:47:04 AM

Gunug, I'm getting the error without plugging in the new drive. I just wanted to see if the Compaq would work. Both my PC Towers have 40pins on the motherboard, the old Compaq has 34.

It's either got a corrupt driver or a ram stick is loose. I can insert a 3.5 floppy in it, and it will run a virus scan, it just won't bootup windows 95. I get as far as the windows 95 screen, after the memory check, and the error appears in Dos.

I can boot to the dos screen, safe boot cursor only, write a few scripts to by pass this or that but it still doesn't fully boot.

I never expected to use this Compaq again, it was on the recycling block as soon as the biannual event came around again.

I don't have, or can't find the boot disk so i can't reload the software, which MS recommends, and i haven't gotten around to opening the G3 to see if there is a 34pin Mac option on it's motherboard.

I am curious to know if there is a cable that has a 40pin end though.

L8r

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on September 06, 2007, 06:12:19 AM

Gunug, I was able to get into the Compaq's \cabs and write
ren c:\windows\system\iemigrat.dll iemigrat.old

c:\windows\options\cabs\setup

which got me to reloading the backup software and into windows, so the memory is intact. I pulled the 34 pin ribbon and the power supply for the 3.5 floppy and discovered that the power supply has a mini plug, where the 5.25 floppy needs a standard 1 inch 4pin.
The other floppies on the towers all have standard plugs. So I guess I'll cut the mini off, add a standard and try that.
This is going to be a Frankenstein project, everything is recycled.

Oh, when I plugged in the power supply from the CD rom into the 5.25 disk it spun-up, so it survived the trip Mechanically!

Something else just dawned on me, well dah, I have and old scsi hard drive box, maybe it will hold this drive and work as an external for the G3?

This is actually fun....I get to use my tools, dig around in old hardware, refurbish a windows box, relearn how to write dos commands. Far removed from what I normally do, and it only took an hour.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: gunug on September 06, 2007, 07:53:30 AM

I don't know what mechanisms/cables would allow that thing to be hooked up externally other than if I found one of those iMation USB cables and it was useful. There used to be external 5-1/4" drives back in IBM PS/2 days but that required a very weird controller I only ever saw on those peculiar machines.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on September 06, 2007, 09:48:51 AM

This is shot in the dark, I have no idea if I'll need another driver, because this is a different drive, and if so, if Windows has it built-in with the other thousand or so drivers. Back in windows 95 days these drives weren't that far removed, I had used a straight-up dos machine back then, and these floppies were common. You can still get free boot disks software for them.
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: gunug on September 06, 2007, 10:32:58 AM

The machine I took it out of was Windows 98 but I have used those drives with XP just fine; it justs loads it's own drivers!

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: LR827 on September 06, 2007, 12:11:35 PM

QUOTE(Parker @ Aug 22 2007, 10:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Also, the G3's pretty easy to upgrade. Ever consider taking out your old CD drive and putting a CD burner in??

My son has some sort of flash drive. Whether or not it would work on the G3, I wouldn't know.

Gregg,

I have a beige G3 tower in which I installed a PC1 - USB card (fairly easy ... with Kelly's encouragement!)

With that you can use a flashdrive and transfer your data.

Krissy also turned me onto "YouSendIt.com" where you can send huge files over the internet for free. I send my manuscripts back & forth between work & home that way.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: Gregg on September 06, 2007, 12:24:02 PM

Lorraine, I've installed (replaced) the video card, which is in the same type of "slot" I believe. But, when the time comes to make the "big transfer" I'll let the Apple Store handle it - at no extra charge. No sense investing in the card unless I have a different need to transfer files.

I've learned that the version of Word for Mac we have will not open an AW WP file. But, free upgrades from MS are available online, and once installed, the files can be opened. So, I don't have to do lots of "conversions" before transferring.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on September 06, 2007, 01:19:52 PM

QUOTE

They do make external USB floppy drives which you could attach to the iMac and iBook.

http://www.iomega.com/direct/products/deta...D=1187792657562

kris this is a 5.25 inch floppy, not the newer 3.5's

QUOTE

Parker I need to get the data OFF the 5.25 floppies and toast it to a CD,to be read by a Toshiba NoteBook.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on September 07, 2007, 04:34:13 AM

Gunug, I hooked it up, but the Compaq can't see the drive, i tried the "install new hardware" option and all the drivers for the floppy didn't apply. it has
Standard floppy driver
Adaptec driver
Buslogic
Compaq
Zenith Data Systems
I've looked around for a panasonic driver, but no go.
Is there a generic 5.25 or one from windows 98 that could be used?

Question #2 the lever on the front controls what specifically, does it just lift the floppy into place to Engage the data, or does it have another purpose? The drive starts when the floppy is inserted as it should, but without seeing the drive i can't tell if the lever has any other engaging function.

Thanks

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: gunug on September 07, 2007, 07:50:19 AM

The lever on the front loads the heads onto the floppy and you can't read a disk without it being engaged. There might be a BIOs setting to enable the use of the floppy. See what instructions come up when it's booting to get into "SETUP" but I'm thinking COMPAQ's it might be the F10 or F1 key (hold down ESC if nothing else works). Once you're in there you should find a set of menus one of which might be one to tell it you have a 5-1/4" floppy.

Also what cable are you using; the one I sent or another? The one I sent would work in the computer I tested with (an IBM PC) but only when the 3-1/2" floppy was unplugged from the cable.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: Gregg on September 07, 2007, 07:54:36 AM

QUOTE(Gregg @ Aug 22 2007, 12:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE(krissel @ Aug 22 2007, 09:27 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They do make external USB floppy drives which you could attach to the iMac and iBook.

Yes, I know. Thanks for the link. Saves me a search if we go that route.

Question for veteran CD burners:
Is it just as convenient to save stuff on a CD-RW as it was a floppy or Zip disk? Is there a limit on the number of burns a CD-RW will take?

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: gunug on September 07, 2007, 09:02:56 AM

Burning CD's generally involves more steps than just saving files. You can develop a routine that makes it fairly transparent but it's never just as simple.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: sandbox on September 07, 2007, 12:07:36 PM

Gunug, just as I thought, on the lever issue, but I needed to ask, it's been some years.

There is no recognition in the Bios, that's why I went to the "Install New Hardware" thinking that it might install the needed driver.

The cable I'm using is yours, the "motherboard 34 pin port" that I'm using is the one that the 3.5 floppy was plugged into. There were no extra ports on the motherboard.

I thought I could just pull the 3.5 floppy-drive out and replace it with the 5.25, boot it, see the 5.25 or add a driver, and then begin to pull the data off of the 5.25 floppies onto the hard drive.

The Compaq is not online, but I could network it to my iBook over the phone line, dial-up the preset number and transfer the data to the iBook modem where I could Toast the data onto a CD. I've done this transfer in the past but on different machines. There's an old "serial port" and "printer port" on the Compaq, but I don't know if I have any adapters to a Firewire, Ethernet, or USB.

In the event that the phone-line connection doesn't work, I can just reconnect the 3.5 floppy-drive, transfer the data to 3.5 floppies and Toast the data to CD's on my G3.

What I need is a driver, or at least a name of one that will work, can you see the driver that was being used on the IBM? Windows 98 has a larger driver package than 95 but some 95 machines came with a 5.25 floppy drive so there should be some drivers somewhere that could be useful.

L8r

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: Gregg on September 07, 2007, 12:13:53 PM

QUOTE(gunug @ Sep 7 2007, 09:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Burning CD's generally involves more steps than just saving files. You can develop a routine that makes it fairly transparent but it's never just as simple.

So a "drag and drop" to a Zip disk is much easier, eh? Kind of what I figured.

But, what about multiple burns? Do you have to include everything that was on the CD along with the new stuff? In other words, does a new burn overwrite what was on there?

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: gunug on September 07, 2007, 10:04:00 PM

Sandbox - Does the Compaq have a bootable hard drive; I think you said somewhere here that you had Windows 98 on it so I assume that it does. When I had that cable plugged into a computer here it wouldn't work properly with both the 3-1/2" and 5-1/4" drives hooked up; it kept on saying that the 5-1/4" had no media in it or that door was open. I powered it down; unplugged the 3-1/2" drive and powered the thing back up and booted Win98 off the hard drive again and it worked and I could format and write to disks at that point. Presumably I could have easily have read data off a different disk if it were for a PC.

There is something here about the Compaq Deskpro's which might be pertinent:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6349-1054934.html

Gregg - CDR/W disks generally are completely "erased" before being rerecorded but they can be partially rewritten with specific packet-type software at lower capacity; I've done this with PC software but not with anything like TOAST. Mostly I use CD-ROM's instead for backups of data that are at least semi-permanent and unchangable

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: Gregg on September 08, 2007, 09:50:42 AM

So, are flash drives the "new removable media"?

I've never used one before. Does it behave like a disk would? That is, it pops up on your desktop and you just drag whatever you need to save to it and it gets added to what's already there, or overwrites a file of the same name. (?)

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: gunug on September 08, 2007, 03:20:49 PM

Under OS X they just mount on the desktop and look like a disk drive (well the icon is often a little more generic). I have one brand that has what's called U3 technology so that it maps 2 partitions: one the disk drive and the other a CD ROM analog that is meant to be write protected and can hold special utilities. This other partition usually isn't used much on MAC's (although some people are experimenting with that) but rather on XP machines where it will automount and run a special menu system. I have probably used one of these under OS 9 but it's been a year or two so I hope someone else can talk about how they work there!

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: Gregg on September 09, 2007, 07:31:47 PM

Thanks for the info. I don't have a USP connection on my G3. I'm just thinking of the future.
Some day....

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: LR827 on September 10, 2007, 07:38:57 AM

QUOTE(Gregg @ Sep 7 2007, 12:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE(gunug @ Sep 7 2007, 09:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Burning CD's generally involves more steps than just saving files. You can develop a routine that makes it fairly transparent but it's never just as simple.

I have CD-RW discs, 15" PB 10.3.9, and I have NEVER been successful at "rewriting" anything on a CD. I simply buy the cheapest batches of regular CD-R's and burn a new one for occasional updated information.

I know that is stupid and I'm doing something wrong, but it just didn't seem worth the time to worry about it. Now I'm wondering if someone on this string can tell me the proper steps to re-write a burned CD?

And, Gregg, yes, dragging to a Zip disk is very easy. I bought a cheap used external one and it works fine.

I'd still like, someday, to figure out how to re-write a CD-RW disc. I think I'm just not using the right settings but I could never find what to use.

Title: in search of the 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
Post by: Gregg on September 10, 2007, 08:49:03 PM

QUOTE(LR827 @ Sep 10 2007, 07:38 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And, Gregg, yes, dragging to a Zip disk is very easy.

Ya, I know. My question was whether it was just as easy with a flash drive. Apparently it is. I think that is the next wave. Removable disks are so early 21st Century.

Hope someone can help you with the CD re-burn thing. I can tell you how to make a match burn twice...

Techsurvivors

Archives => 2007 => Topic started by: sandbox on August 21, 2007, 05:47:11 PM