4

I'm attempting to retrieve text documents from a floppy disk that is a 2.0Mb/2.0 Mo DS HD floppy similar to:

img

The only thing he knows is that the documents were created on a mc around 1996.

What are some ways that I can retrieve these text documents and what software problems should I expect keeping I have no idea what application or OS was used to create the documents?

|improve this question
  • Based on the origin of the migration, the documents were created on a Mac, presumably? Any idea which application? – Tommy Dec 4 '17 at 21:50
  • If we knew what type of device authored the disk, any problems with format could be dealt with. – PhasedOut Dec 8 '17 at 13:35
6

That's the ubiquitous 1.44MB 3.5" floppy. Any modern floppy drive should be able to read it; the hard part is finding software that understands the format -- Mac-formatted disks aren't readable by Windows.

The first thing I'd try is plugging a USB floppy drive into a Mac and reading the disk directly: if you're lucky, everything should just work, and you can copy the files onto the hard drive to try various options for reading them. If it doesn't, you're probably looking at a data-recovery effort, which can get a bit tricky.

The files may be plain text or SimpleText documents, in which case TextEdit can read them. If not, LibreOffice is free and supports a wide range of old Mac word-processor formats.

|improve this answer
  • 1
    The drive may be able to read the floppy, but the floppy drive controller may not. – snips-n-snails Dec 4 '17 at 22:02
  • @traal Apple definitely switched to MFM when they went HD; I can't seem to find a conclusive answer as to whether that also means IBM-style sectors, but I would assume so? – Tommy Dec 4 '17 at 22:58
  • @Tommy find which FDC controller was used that will tell you if it is compatible or not for more info see similar QA Copying disk image from HP 9122D drive – Spektre Dec 5 '17 at 9:21
  • 1
    @Spektre yep, we're both commenters on the same answer there; since the WD references there is intended to use System 34 formatting in MFM mode I still think the answerer has made a mistake in attributing an incompatibility to the sector format in use but I agree with the principle: just saying that byte X will have flux transitions Y guarantees nothing about address marks, CRC formulas, etc, etc. I can't find an actual part name, sadly, but a proliferation of Windows 3.1/95 Mac disk readers for the PC strongly implies ordinary IBM-style sectoring to me. – Tommy Dec 5 '17 at 16:48
6

From my experience, you have two options:

  1. Use a utility called "MacDisk For Windows" from (https://macdisk.com/mden.php) that has a good chance of allowing a PC that is equipped with a Floppy Drive (USB or Otherwise) to read the HFS or HFS+ Formatted Macintosh Disk you have. I've used this in the past with good results.

If you are concerned about using this old disk in a newer PC and running into a formatting error so severe it may damage your media the choose option

  1. Locate someone locally who has a G3 Blue and White, G4, or G5 Apple Macintosh that is still equipped with a floppy drive, and copy the disk contents to a standard formatted Flash Drive which would be visible by both PCs and Macs. I specify these apples because they use early versions of OS X, or even run OS 9, are highly likely to include a floppy drive in their standard configuration, and a USB port for the flash drive. (as duskwuff mentioned, the G5 might not be the best since it does not support internal floppy drives and only runs OS X so you would still need to get a USB floppy - mentioned it because it could still be available on the used market)

It may be a good idea to acquire one of these legacy Power Macs anyway, since you may run into this issue in the future - diskettes, in the wild, tend to roam in packs. You maybe able to find a functional one inexpensively.

Also, the files on the disk may be in some odd Macintosh application format, like Claris, Appleworks, Office Macintosh, or some other non-cross platform extension that may require you to manipulate it and convert it to a PC-readable file type from the original data. I doubt that time is of the essence, since this floppy has probably spent many seasons in retirement already.

|improve this answer
  • 3
    LibreOffice supports Claris, Appleworks, Word for Mac, MacWrite, and a couple dozen other formats, including more varieties of plain text than you can shake a stick at. – Mark Dec 4 '17 at 23:09
  • @Mark good to know, it figured it would, I always get concerned about older formats just because of a nightmare project long ago involving 15 year old Lotus Notes/Smartsuite data and transforming it to Corel Office...... – PhasedOut Dec 5 '17 at 13:32
  • The Power Mac G5 might not be a good recommendation. It cannot natively run Mac OS 9, never supported an internal floppy drive, and was a late enough model that most users would not have purchased an external floppy drive for it. – duskwuff -inactive- Dec 7 '17 at 16:36
  • If the disk is MFS formatted and/or 400k, even the G3 might be too new... – rackandboneman Dec 8 '17 at 1:00
  • @rackandboneman true, however, if the disk is a High Density Double Sided Disk, the chances of that are less. We really need to know from the OP what type of Apple authored the disk. – PhasedOut Dec 8 '17 at 13:34
2

On floppy media that was not sold as preformatted, the unformatted capacity was commonly stated. 2MB is the unformatted capacity of what is commonly called a 1.44MB floppy.

However, the actual low-level format on the floppy could be:

  • PC DD format, which is 360 or 720kB. A PC drive can physically read that.
  • Mac 800kB/400kB format. A non-specialty PC drive will choke on it.
  • PC HD format. 1440kB. PC drive can read.
  • PC specialty formats, like 1720kB. Unlikely that someone wrote to such a floppy from a Mac. PC drive can read with luck (these formats traded capacity for reliability) and an OS that supports it.

The filesystem could be:

  • a DOS style FAT12/FAT16/VFAT filesystem (any Windows or linux PC can deal with that)
  • a Mac-specific filesystem (MFS, HFS, HFS+) - will need extra software in windows, and manual/special handling in linux (a floppy automounter, if present, will likely not work).

The Documents:

Unless they are plaintext (and even then, you might need a text editor that is configurable regarding character and newline encoding), you will need whatever software can process the given format.

In case of a documented, or semi-plaintext, format, you might be able to write a rudimentary decoder yourself.

If the filesystem is Macintosh specific, it is important to know that these filesystems actually treat files as a pair of two "subfiles", so called forks. Macintosh applications often made use of that, and a file is incomplete and probably unusable if one of these forks is lost. Special attention has to be paid when handling this kind of file, since some non-Mac drivers will either only give you one of these forks or present them as two separate files (sometimes with one of them as a hidden file).

|improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.