Getting my old as dirt 5.25" floppy drive working on a modern computer

[Breadpudding]

So I recently made a purchase on Amazon to put together an adapter for my 5.25" floppy drive. However, when I received the package today, I realized that the cable I ordered wasn't an IDE cable, but rather IDC34. This meant that my PCIe to IDE adapter(which I tested with an older drive and is working) would ultimately do nothing. Would it be possible to find a similar device for IDC34? I have PCIe, PCI, and SATA ports available.

 

Thanks in advance,

        Breadpudding

[SenKa]

Here's the controller you need, and a floppy cable with a 51/4 drive tied in, like this

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, SenKa said:

Here's the controller you need, and a floppy cable with a 51/4 drive tied in, like this

 

I think thats a pcie to ide, not floppy.

[Breadpudding]

1 minute ago, SenKa said:

Here's the controller you need, and a floppy cable with a 51/4 drive tied in, like this

 

You just made the same mistake I did. While you have the correct cable(I do too), you have the wrong controller(which is the reason I made this thread)!

These are the things I bought:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KDJTMGP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YAX13Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[SenKa]

2 minutes ago, Breadpudding said:

You just made the same mistake I did. While you have the correct cable(I do too), you have the wrong controller(which is the reason I made this thread)!

These are the things I bought:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KDJTMGP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YAX13Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I think thats a pcie to ide, not floppy.

 Sorry about that, I did just make that mistake. I have found one such card but no stock of it thus far. https://www.vesalia.de/?V02b0f125552431479585951520a514e01101f0954414752050140090a1e31115579633a223c6373744e03263f2a2a73661560131e7c752337667a2a7f2b292e754d4b424a41587a4e4f5a0144555c1c515c6d4671271f565c012e7c5a58501c46607e7f371d61616f3e717b6f2f4f2c44717

[Breadpudding]

2 minutes ago, SenKa said:

 

 Sorry about that, I did just make that mistake. I have found one such card but no stock of it thus far. https://www.vesalia.de/?V02b0f125552431479585951520a514e01101f0954414752050140090a1e31115579633a223c6373744e03263f2a2a73661560131e7c752337667a2a7f2b292e754d4b424a41587a4e4f5a0144555c1c515c6d4671271f565c012e7c5a58501c46607e7f371d61616f3e717b6f2f4f2c44717

Discontinued. I have a feeling that this is going to be a fun journey.

[Jimkirk363]

Why not just get an external USB Floppy drive?

 

U can get em from about £9 now.

[SenKa]

9 minutes ago, jimkirk363 said:

Why not just get an external USB Floppy drive?

 

U can get em from about £9 now.

Because they don't, to my knowledge, make external 51/4" floppies.

 

EDIT:

 

Let me elaborate here, they *do* make 5 1/4" floppies. But those were from the days of 1 5 1/4" floppy being a bottleneck of productivity, and often connected over proprietary ports.

[Breadpudding]

4 minutes ago, jimkirk363 said:

Why not just get an external USB Floppy drive?

 

U can get em from about £9 now.

Because I have an actual 5.25" floppy I salvaged from an old computer.

[SuperCloneRanger]

I can find a 34 pin floppy to usb adapter, it says its for 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drives but i think the interface is the same for all drive sizes. And add an internal usb adapter to use inside your pc.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-44MB-3-5-floppy-drive-connector-34-PIN-34P-to-USB-cable-adapter-PCB-bo-Hg/113731697640?epid=9020180466&hash=item1a7aeffbe8:g:mUcAAOSwaMtcneZ-

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/9Pin-Motherboard-to-Double-Layer-Adapter-2-Ports-USB2-0-A-Female-Internal-Header/303158696605?epid=0&hash=item4695aa9a9d:g:bXcAAOSw6lpcf5Cn

 

EDIT: Sorry, the description on the adapter says 1.44MB ONLY.

[SenKa]

I have good news for you! It seems this company still exists, and they offer what you need! It is meant to adapt to USB-A for an external enclosure, but you can buy a Type A to Internal Header adapter along with the adapter they sell

 

http://shop.deviceside.com/?

[SenKa]

2 minutes ago, SuperCloneRanger said:

I can find a 34 pin floppy to usb adapter, it says its for 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drives but i think the interface is the same for all drive sizes. And add an internal usb adapter to use inside your pc.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-44MB-3-5-floppy-drive-connector-34-PIN-34P-to-USB-cable-adapter-PCB-bo-Hg/113731697640?epid=9020180466&hash=item1a7aeffbe8:g:mUcAAOSwaMtcneZ-

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/9Pin-Motherboard-to-Double-Layer-Adapter-2-Ports-USB2-0-A-Female-Internal-Header/303158696605?epid=0&hash=item4695aa9a9d:g:bXcAAOSw6lpcf5Cn

 

EDIT: Sorry, the description on the adapter says 1.44MB ONLY.

Interface is different, that won't work. 5 1/4 Drives are not Drive A on systems in the PC era, and 3 1/2" controllers only work with Drive A.

 

Also, OP, one thing to note, only OS' Windows 8 and older will support floppy disks without 3rd party software, Windows 10 removed the drivers to do so, but only Windows 10

[SuperCloneRanger]

1 minute ago, SenKa said:

I have good news for you! It seems this company still exists, and they offer what you need! It is meant to adapt to USB-A for an external enclosure, but you can buy a Type A to Internal Header adapter along with the adapter they sell

 

http://shop.deviceside.com/?

I saw that when i was searching around, unfortunately its read only.

[SuperCloneRanger]

1 minute ago, SenKa said:

Interface is different, that won't work. 5 1/4 Drives are not Drive A on systems in the PC era, and 3 1/2" controllers only work with Drive A.

 

Also, OP, one thing to note, only OS' Windows 8 and older will support floppy disks without 3rd party software, Windows 10 removed the drivers to do so, but only Windows 10

Yeah i edited my post when i read the description on the adapter.

[SenKa]

Just now, SuperCloneRanger said:

I saw that when i was searching around, unfortunately its read only.

Ahh.. I missed that.

 

The issue is that 5 1/4 floppies require comparatively complex controllers to operate than 3.5" drives, and nobody has bothered to make something for the task

 

What you could do, is buy a USB to ISA adapter and buy an old floppy controller, but this is getting in the realm of cost prohibitive as the only USB to ISA adapter on the market is $150...

[KarathKasun]

8 minutes ago, SenKa said:

Ahh.. I missed that.

 

The issue is that 5 1/4 floppies require comparatively complex controllers to operate than 3.5" drives, and nobody has bothered to make something for the task

 

What you could do, is buy a USB to ISA adapter and buy an old floppy controller, but this is getting in the realm of cost prohibitive as the only USB to ISA adapter on the market is $150...

Incorrect.  They both use the same controllers if they are the same vintage.  I can use a 5.25 drive on any board that has a standard floppy connector given I have the proper cable with the edge connector.

 

The problem is the power needed to run them.  USB cant supply the current for 5.25 drives.

[SenKa]

Just now, KarathKasun said:

Incorrect.  They both use the same controllers.

I worded that poorly...

 

They use the same controllers, but 5 1/4 drives are technologically dumber and thus harder to work with.

 

Also, controllers that predate 3.5" floppies do not often work in my experience, which is limited.

[KarathKasun]

4 minutes ago, SenKa said:

I worded that poorly...

 

They use the same controllers, but 5 1/4 drives are technologically dumber and thus harder to work with.

 

Also, controllers that predate 3.5" floppies do not often work in my experience, which is limited.

I grew up in that era.  The only limitation is the BIOS in the computer having the code to read from either disk format.  The fundamental signaling schema is pretty much the same, the structure of the data on the disks is different.

 

In modern PC's the BIOS doesnt need to do anything, as all of that is now software layer level instead of firmware level AFAIK.

[KarathKasun]

Check this thread to see if any of the hardware is still available...

 

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=57500

[SuperCloneRanger]

instead of trying to make the new computer work with old media why not make the old computer work with new media. You can get flash adapters for most old computers.

[SenKa]

10 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

I grew up in that era.  The only limitation is the BIOS in the computer having the code to read from either disk format.  The fundamental signaling schema is pretty much the same, the structure of the data on the disks is different.

 

In modern PC's the BIOS doesnt need to do anything, as all of that is now software layer level instead of firmware level AFAIK.

Thank you for the clarification then! 5 1/4" floppies had died off by the time I was born, and my first PC had a 3.5" floppy but I never used it.

[Breadpudding]

23 hours ago, SenKa said:

Interface is different, that won't work. 5 1/4 Drives are not Drive A on systems in the PC era, and 3 1/2" controllers only work with Drive A.

 

Also, OP, one thing to note, only OS' Windows 8 and older will support floppy disks without 3rd party software, Windows 10 removed the drivers to do so, but only Windows 10

I'm not worried about that since I use Debian as my main operating system.

23 hours ago, SuperCloneRanger said:

I saw that when i was searching around, unfortunately its read only.

My only goal here is to read from floppies. Writing to them would be more of a luxury than a necessity.

22 hours ago, SuperCloneRanger said:

instead of trying to make the new computer work with old media why not make the old computer work with new media. You can get flash adapters for most old computers.

I don't have the old computer unfortunately. My father has a nasty habit of getting rid of anything that he deems to be simply taking up space. That includes the RGBI monitor that came with the computer. Without RGBI, that made the computer useless. All I have left of it is an i8088, BIOS chip from the video card, and the 5.25" floppy drive.

Edited July 20, 2019 by Breadpudding
Fixed a typo

[Joluch]

Bit of a long shot, but have you considered asking your local library or university library if they have a machine that can read floppys that you might be able to access? Most major libraries and universities, especially ones with a department in Library Sciences, usually have an archival department that keeps all sorts of old records that are on old media, and they generally will keep some machines around to gaurantee access. Ask if they have an archives or archiving department first, since most people will have no idea about it. You really would need to live close to a pretty major city or have access to a decent university library, though. In any case, good luck with your project.