I have several old 3.5" floppies (50 or so) that have been in a box, and I wanted to see what was on them.
So I ordered a floppy disk reader, one that works both with Mac and Windows, but it still won't open and I can't even format blank discs.
Is there a way I can create some sort of emulator or environment I can create to open these fossils?
>Mac
Found your problem.
Old mac floppies used a different physical layout than PC floppies that allowed them to store more.
If you find a floppy drive that supports the 2.88 meg format, instead of the 1.44 meg format, it should be able to read them. (not that macs used 2.88 meg, but those drives can read any format you run into).
I know they are mac, that's why i wish to create an emulator.
The drive was made in 2004, I'm guessing they had the 2.88 meg format out by that time, so it should read the disks just fine, yet, it still gives me problems.
The disks also contain Mac content, the disks are 1.44 meg format.
If the floppies don't have a hole on both ends then they are 800K and require special hardware or an old mac
Use google you lazy fuck
They have 2 holes and you can lock the disk content. I know what I have.
Bump
Floppies were designed to hold the data for a couple of years at most. Even if you are able to read them, the data is probably corrupted.
Iv'e tried all 50, there has to be at least one that works.
But i can't open or even format. Maybe they are all corrupted.
MacOS used a different logical format. You need a program like TransMac to use them directly on Windows, or can probably use something like dd to dump images that an emulator might be able to mount
use dd, dump the images, use the images.
Ill try
you'll also be able to tell which ones are actually corrupted if you listen closely while they dump, most 3.5" drives makes a distinctive noise when failing to read a bad sector.
i don't know what the fuck a DD is, im guessing it's disk dump.
Even with disk dump, i don't know how the fuck to use it.
then you should probably use the transmac trial
If they're not 800/400K disks that are physically unreadable on PC drives no matter what due to rotation speed differences, you need a piece of software that allows you to read and write HFS volumes on Windows.
Or you could just buy an old Wallstreet PowerBook G3 with a floppy drive as a bridge box, they'll read anything except maybe really early MFS 400K disks that IIRC need a driver you can find on the internet.
Could not access disk/media.
then they might actually be fucked
listen to the drive when it tries, like, hold that fucker right up to your ear
if you hear a four-pulse high-low or low-high cycle at around 250ms a tone, that disk's dead without dd wizardry
Nope, some have done it and i have separated them.
The ones left make a whirring sound that is consistent.
I'm kinda stumped. I definitely wouldn't give up on the whirry ones though (I'd hoard the others just in case too, but shit I still have VHS fansubs in a U-Stor)
Apparently Basilisk works with USB drives now? Try that?
No one cares about your gay porn from 1995.
thanks for trying. Im sure it would work if i knew what i was doing.
apparently some tools also only work if you disconnect the drive, insert the disk, and only then plug the drive back in. try that?
* Windows can only read Mac 1.44MB floppies. It cannot read 400K/800K floppies. You need a USB drive and 3rd party software which lets Windows read/write HFS formatted disks.
* Any modern Mac should be able to read 1.44MB disks using a USB floppy drive. It's plug-n-play on my MBP. But you will not be able to read 400K/800K disks.
* You will need a classic Mac with a floppy drive to read 400KB and 800KB disks (MFS or HFS format). There's no way (that I know of) around this because classic Mac drives had variable speed spindles for 400K and 800K disks. That's how they fit more data on the disk than PC's.
Dude, I recently pulled a bunch of 17-27yo floppies out of a garage. Out of over 100 only one was bad.
As long as they're safe from magnets, water, and dust they will last a long ass time.
Unless you get a Kryoflux and convert them to images to use with an emulator. You can't directly read Macintosh formatted floppies on PC, even if you can do vice versa.
>TransMac
kek
dd can't dump them because the drive physically can't read the tracks
they're 1.44mb disks, that isn't the problem.
HFS formatted HD disks aren't 1.44MB though. The tracks are physically in different places and read at different speeds, a PC drive can't read them.
PC drives are plebs, Macintosh drives could read DOS floppies, heck, Amiga had a programmable controller, you could read any disk as long you had the driver for it.
Use HFVExplorer, noob
does it come with a compatible drive?
Depends. How old are we talking? If you're looking to recover stuff from 400k/800k floppies, you'll be SOL on a PC since they use a completely different type of magnetic encoding. Get yourself an old Mac with a Superdrive that can use both 1.44MB and 800k discs, then you'll have some success. Also, I'd recommend installing Basilisk II and using it to write 1.44MB Mac disks. It's how I used to transfer stuff between a PC and a Mac over 10 years ago.
HFVExplorer is really useful to have too, since it'll allow you to put files in your emulated Mac's hard drive
>HFS formatted HD disks aren't 1.44MB though
Yes they are. The barrier is reading HFS itself, not physically reading the disks.
Mac SD/DD disks (400K/800K) are not physically laid out in a manner that can be read on PCs.
That's what makes owning an old Mac with a SuperDrive useful, since it can handle both magnetic encoding types.
Honestly, humidity and temperature fluctuations can be a killer as well. Don't keep magnetics in your attic/basement.
source: have a crate with ~500 Amiga 3.5" disks, 99% are fucked. Half ot the time they still read out to a degree, but writing anything back to them is futile.
Just pick up an old mac off ebay or craigslist.