Questions tagged [floppy-disk]
Use, restoration and imaging of floppy disks; low-level formats of floppy media. Consider [file-system] for high-level formatting.
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Is side 0 on the top or bottom of a floppy disk?
Assuming a 3.5" or 5.25" diskette placed on a surface with its label side facing upwards, which side of the magnetic disc within does head #0 of the drive reside on?
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When was the end of the floppy-only IBM PC clone?
Can we pinpoint in what year the number of IBM-compatible PCs (whether original IBM machines or clones) sold without a hard disk drive became so negligible that almost all new commercial software, ...
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Apple IIc making grinding sounds when accessing disks beyond normal clicks
I'm looking for resources and/or advice.
What problems with a IIc could be causing either the internal or external drive to make this horrible grinding sound? It's different than the usual startup ...
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Did any software use "deleted data" floppy sectors?
The standard IBM System 34 floppy format supports two different types of sectors, "data" and "deleted data". In the sector header, data sectors are marked by an FB byte (Data Mark ...
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How to read copy protected Apple II floppies / NIB images
I've got a game on Apple II 140k 5,25" floppy that does not exist in the archives yet. I would like to read it into an image. But ADTpro just shows read errors on all sectors in spite always ...
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Did the original Macintosh not have any MIDI or similar music capabilities?
The original version of Shadowgate for the Macintosh is an eerie experience after you have played the NES version, with its amazing soundtrack. The Mac version is entirely mute, save for some random ...
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Install Windows NT 4.0 with floppy disks [duplicate]
Not that long ago, I got this 3.5 inch floppy disk drive, and I would like to install Windows NT 4.0 on a computer with the floppy disks.
So, how can I get all 3 floppy .img files, onto the floppy ...
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What is the VTOC format for an AppleDOS disk with more than 50 tracks?
I am trying to read files of an AppleDOS 3.3 disk. The documentation I've found, both from Inside AppleDOS and also from Archiveteams' website (which I believe was taken from Inside AppleDOS): http://...
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Did RapidLok etc knock floppy drives out of alignment?
From https://www.filfre.net/2016/01/a-pirates-life-for-me-part-3-case-studies-in-copy-protection/
But balanced against the one great advantage of RapidLok for the legitimate user was at least one ...
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Install a DOS application consisting of 5 .IMG files (when expanded) on Windows 10 running DOSBox-X [closed]
I downloaded a copy of DataEase 4.5 database. Once I expanded the download, it had five .IMG files representing the original five 3.5" floppy disks.
I wish to install the software so it can run ...
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What is the "Special Cleaning Mechanism" in some Sony HD Floppy Disks?
I recently bought a pack of Sony IBM formatted high density floppy disks, the same pictured below. There's a "Special Cleaning Mechanism" logo displayed on the box, and the only information ...
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What is the maximum allowable error when aligning the magnetic heads of a floppy drive?
Today, I realigned the transplanted heads of a floppy drive by hand, and it felt like a herculean thing to do; as well as an experience I hope to never repeat.
Now that I'm finished, I want to ...
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Dimension of a 3.5-inch floppy disk
Can anyone tell what are the dimensions and/or volume for a 3.5-inch floppy disk?
I am doing a presentation and want to make a visual on how many floppy disks are required to save 200 GB (73662 floppy ...
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Is there any hardware that lets me use floppy drives with low level formatting capability on a modern pc? [duplicate]
There's a bunch of usb floppy drives out there but it's clear they're quite limited. I want the ability to low level format my disks. Is there any usb/pci/anything adapter that can interface with ...
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What are the three or four holes on the back of a 3.5inch floppy disk indicating and used for?
Why do 3.5 inch floppy disks have sometimes three and others four holes on the backside? What's the difference, what do this holes indicate and what are these used for?
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How do I save data from a program with CC65 [closed]
I wanted to have a calculator program be able to save a set of answers on a floppy disk or tape but I have no idea what I should do.
I am aware that the "cbm.h" library can be used to load ...
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Did something like floppy disk jukeboxes for home computers exist in the 70s or 80s? Would that have been a feasible concept?
Many home computers in the 1970s and 1980s had two floppy disk drives, or owners bought a second drive, to reduce having to play disk jockey. A second drive was especially popular with Commodore Amiga ...
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Can a floppy disk be formatted in another size for (read-only) backwards compatibility? [duplicate]
Is it possible to format a 3.5″ floppy disk in another size?
For example an original 1440 KiB floppy as a 720 KiB or 360 KiB disk thats (at least read-only) compatible with 720 KiB or 360 KiB drives?
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Are the ACTUAL DISKETTES different for 360KB Single, or Double sided? 1.2M? [duplicate]
I have lots of old IBM 5.25" diskettes.
I have 360 kB "Single sided", 360KB "Double Sided" and 1.2 MB diskette drives.
Are the diskettes THEMSELVES different for use in these ...
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Can you use 5.25 HD floppy disks in a DD drive?
Is is possible to format and use 5.25 high density disks in a double density drive?
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What was the last 5.25-inch floppy disk drive manufactured?
Assuming that no manufacturer of removable-media disk-drives is still manufacturing disk-drives for 5¼-inch floppy disks - what was the last drive model manufactured / sold and who was the ...
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Which software was the first to use copy protection?
While researching early magnetic storage around 1980, I've come to ponder if we know of the first piece of software on removable media that employed copy protection?
The Wikipedia article mentions ...
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Confused about FM encoding
I'm finding what appear to be two different descriptions of how FM encoding on early floppies worked.
In this description (see page 2 if it didn't go there directly) it appears that FM is nothing more ...
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I get I/O errors when writing a disk image to a new old-stock floppy in a USB drive. How can I resolve this?
I wish to create a bootable DOS 3.3 installation floppy disk (3.5″, 1.44MB, 2HD, Sony branded) for my AST Premium Exec 386SX/20 laptop.
I have bought a new USB floppy disk drive and connected it to an ...
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Were commercial Amiga floppy disks shipped with write protection?
In this Amiga "quick kickstart guide" magazine thing that I have from when I bought an Amiga 1200 long ago (it seems to be printed in late 1995), they really go out of their way to point out ...
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Could visual inspection of the magnetic disk be used to detect the quality (or damages) of a floppy disk?
The magnetic floppy disk is sometimes used as an (infrared) light filter as shown on some pictures below. That led me to think about the actual magnetic disk and if inconsistencies or damaged could be ...
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What do abnormal sounds or vibrations of a spinning floppy disk inside a floppy drive mean?
I saw this floppy drive sound emulator and this floppy disk sound video and wondered if the sound of a floppy drive or more specifically a the sound of a floppy disk spinning in the drive, could tell ...
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Approximately how many 3.5-inch floppy disks have been produced before manufacturing was stopped? [closed]
3.5-inch floppy disks are not produced anymore, with I think Sony being the last to stop manufacturing in March 2011. Meaning that all floppy disks that exist are currently in circulation and the ...
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Why are the magnetic floppy disk drives (FDD) heads not frictionless?
After reading this answer to the question How long can a floppy disk spin before wearing out?
... one could see thru the floppy... Not just badly worn, but the magnetic coating was outright polished ...
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What information could be recovered from visualized magnetic information?
I was wondering how the data on a floppy disk physically looks like. With data stored on a magnetic disk obviously that isn't visible. The Wikipedia article on floppy disks however shows a beautiful ...
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How does a floppy drive identify the first and last sectors and tracks?
I've recently found a more modern application "Floppy Disk Master-7"(Picture 2) (FDM) that visualized the bad sectors, tracks and clusters(Picture 1) on a floppy disk in a similar (but ...
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How to determine the required RPM for a 3.5-inch floppy disk?
In addition to my other related question Is it possible to read floppy disks at non-standard rotation speeds (RPM)?.
How to determine the required RPM for a 3.5-inch floppy disk as disks can ...
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Is it possible to read floppy disks at non-standard rotation speeds (RPM)?
According to this article 3.5-inch floppies rotate 300-600 times per minute (RPM). It is possible to overclock the RPM and will that result in higher transfer speeds? Or is it possible to read a disk ...
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What is the effect of direct exposure of the magnetic disk of a floppy to ultraviolet (UV) light?
I was thinking of the mold issue of floppies and UV light (UV-C) came to mind. As ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation and floppies use a magnetic disk for storage and I vaguely ...
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Can powering on/off a 1541 damage a disk left inside?
The User's Guide for the Commodore 1541 disk drive includes a vague warning, on page 7, to "remember to always remove the diskette before the drive is turned off or on". Some third-party ...
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Copy content between floppy disks on Apple II
I own an Apple IIe with the Apple DuoDisk device. I've been trying to find out if it is possible to copy content from a floppy disk inserted into the disk 1 slot into a floppy inserted on the disk 2 ...
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When did 5.25″ floppies exceed the capacity of 8″?
When 5.25″ floppies were introduced, in the mid-to-late seventies, they would have had less capacity than the older 8″ because, well, less area on which to store data.
On the other hand, being cheaper ...
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How to repair IIgs 3.5 floppy drive?
The Apple 3.5" Drive on my IIgs still reads disks, but eject no longer works. The failure to eject is silent, no errors, noise, or motion. With a paperclip I can get the disks ejected but this is ...
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Commodore 1581 crashes during format
I have a Commodore 1581 (800k 3.5" DD) floppy drive which reads and writes data just fine (with DD disks only of course), but it crashes (drive keeps spinning forever, stops moving the head and ...
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What is the (standardized) weight of a 3.5 inch floppy disk?
What is the weight of a 3.5 inch floppy disk and was the weight ever standardized?
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How did games written for tape-based BBC micro, get officially and unofficially ported to disk, bearing in mind extra workspace needed by DFS ROM?
If I recall, PAGE = &E00 for a BBC Model B system with cassette tape based storage.
On installation of Acorn DFS ROM (with 8271 Floppy disc controller), the ROM allocated more memory, increasing ...
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How to write Apple IIgs .po disk images to Floppy Disks with an older Mac
I recently acquired an Apple IIgs with two 3.5" floppy drives and no hard disk. I'm very seasoned with older Macs, but I have no experience within the Apple II world.
I search for a way to create ...
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How did the Apple IIGS automatically slow 5.25 inch disk I/O code for backwards compatability?
Apple II software often used hard-coded timing for 5.25 inch floppy disk I/O, for example to control the duration of each track step or the rate at which bytes are written and read from the disk. ...
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"Restoring" a 1986 Compaq Portable II (Cabling question)
I am in possession of a working 1986 Compaq Portable II. However, I couldn't find a 5.25" floppy with the proper version of DOS on it to actually make the computer, ya know, work.
I've since ...
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How long can a floppy disk spin for before wearing out?
I'm mainly interested in 3.5" floppies here, as they're what I have lying around, but other sizes could also be interesting to hear about if anyone has the data.
As I understand it, the head rubs ...
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I can't read DS 1MB floppy disks
Using an USB external floppy drive, I've been able to use my Mac to back up files from a big box of 3.5 inch floppies (800K, HD 1.4MB). But I cannot even read my DS 1MB floppies using either the ...
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Reading data of floppies from a ZX Spectrum Swift Disc
Back in the day when we had a Sixword Ltd. Swift Disc floppy-drive we were ahead of the game on our speccy, allowing us to use 3.5inch floppy disks. See:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/swift-...
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How did 512 Bytes come to be the most common sector size?
It was long assumed by FS drivers that all diskette and harddisk units operate in blocks of size 512 Bytes. How did this happen to be the case, historically? Why not the "neater" 1 KiB, say?
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AST Laptop With No OS
I work in network design/IT for a church, and a someone came in with a AST Advantage Explorer 486SX/33. It looks like it has no OS. After failing to boot, it requests to go to the BIOS to look for an ...
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Did any 5.25" floppy drives not based on the Apple Disk II offer quarter-track control
Unlike many drives, the Apple Disk II has inputs that control the individual head stepper coils. These are commonly described as advancing by half-tracks, since advancing a full track requires ...
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