Not sure what the best solution is...

irfaan · #1 May 23rd, 2007, 10:56 AM

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post, please let me know if its not.

My dad just approached me asking if I could get data from 3.5 floppys that he had from about 10 years ago.

I was wondering what would be the best way to recover the data. Should I try to buy a external hard drive (I have a macbook). Can you even get them? If that is the case, do I need to set up OS classic (I got into macs after 10.4 so have no idea how that works).

I guess the second option might be go to a apple reseller. What are the chances that they have a hard drive to use, and what do you think they would charge to pull that information from the disks?

If you have any other solutions I would be more than happy to hear them!

Thanks in advance!

limike28 · #2 May 23rd, 2007, 11:06 AM

What you need is a USB floppy drive which can be purchased and are fairly cheap, and will work under OS X. The bigger question is what the data is. Depending on the format you may need Classic to run certain applications.

**fryke** · #3 May 23rd, 2007, 07:45 PM

Yep, a USB floppy drive would certainly work. (I find it strange to see a floppy disk icon on my Mac OS X desktop, though. Freaks me out, kinda.)

About the file formats and the need for classic: Most files would probably open in newer application versions. If you can't use Classic (because you're on an intel Mac for example), there might be the option to translate the files using MacLink Plus, although that's not inexpensive.

lbj · #4 May 24th, 2007, 01:46 AM

I most be missing something... 'cause if not, I'm thinking the most time and cost effective method would be to find a PC (library, hotel, your own work environment, or if nothing else...Kinkos) and copy them over to a flash drive or CD. 95% of PCs I see still come with a floppy drive.

Buy a floppy drive? Install another OS? To retrieve files from a floppy?

What am I missing?

irfaan · #5 May 24th, 2007, 02:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lbj

I most be missing something... 'cause if not, I'm thinking the most time and cost effective method would be to find a PC (library, hotel, your own work environment, or if nothing else...Kinkos) and copy them over to a flash drive or CD. 95% of PCs I see still come with a floppy drive.

Buy a floppy drive? Install another OS? To retrieve files from a floppy?

What am I missing?

Sorry I should have specified that the disks are from a mac... Can pc's read old mac files? If so then yes, thats totally the way I will do it! Thanks

**fryke** · #6 May 24th, 2007, 04:58 AM

HFS-formatted floppies are a problem on PCs. You'd need a 3rd party tool to read the disks. I'd say buying a (cheap!) USB floppy drive is not too bad. Might need it again some day. Or someone else will, and you can sell it to them for 70% of its original price of 9.99 or something like that.

**Giaguara** · #7 May 24th, 2007, 05:23 AM

Maybe someone in your area would have a mac with a floppy drive so you could possibly loan one for half an hour to transfer your files ... you could check with your local mac usergroups or as your friends if some of them would have a mac with floppy drive.
Oh boy ... I remember when one could actually fit some data on a floppy... now try to save even a text document and it's usually bigger

**fryke** · #8 May 24th, 2007, 11:21 AM

you write a _lot_ of text, then, or rather embed images and movies etc. ...

My novels would still fit on a 800K disk. I'm still pondering writing my next book on my Colour Classic in MacWrite II or Pro or whatever I've got on there.