Best way in 2022 to extract data from 5 1/4" floppy disks

[SimplyChunk]

As the title really.  My Step Dad's old 3.5" drive didn't have the Data we were looking for on it (old CAD drawings) after plugging it in to an external dock.  So we're now going to look on his old 3.5 and 5.25 inch floppy disks.  I've got an external 3.5 floppy drive that still works in Windows 10 but need a way to read the 5.25 disks

[SimplyChunk]

Found this so far

 

[da na]

IIRC 5.25" internal drives aren't too expensive and compatible with XP if that helps. Not sure if a board supporting one would be 10 compatible though since P4 boards were some of the last to support them.

[SimplyChunk]

3 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

IIRC 5.25" internal drives aren't too expensive and compatible with XP if that helps. Not sure if a board supporting one would be 10 compatible though since P4 boards were some of the last to support them.

You'll probably be the best to ask this actually.  Do the 5.25 inch variants use the same floppy connector as the 3.5 inch ones? or is it a different connector?

[da na]

3 minutes ago, SimplyChunk said:

You'll probably be the best to ask this actually.  Do the 5.25 inch variants use the same floppy connector as the 3.5 inch ones? or is it a different connector?

AFAIK some do... make sure you don't get one that's proprietary though. I know IBM had some proprietary drives in the PS/2 line but those were 3.5... 

[Robchil]

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Express-Controller-Adapter-PEX2IDE/dp/B000YAX13Y

 

and get a floppy cable with edge socket.  .. if your 5.25inch drive needs it. 

https://www.amazon.com/CablesOnline-Universal-Floppy-Ribbon-5-25in/dp/B00FZ3IL80

 

edit; saw it's normal IDE controller card. 

 

here is a USB device you can connect your drive to. 

http://shop.deviceside.com/prod/FC5025  

you will probably still need a cable with edge connector.. most of the old ones had that. only newer and 3.5inch disks had the normal 34pin connector. 

 

[SimplyChunk]

20 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

AFAIK some do... make sure you don't get one that's proprietary though. I know IBM had some proprietary drives in the PS/2 line but those were 3.5... 

Thanks man

3 minutes ago, Robchil said:

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Express-Controller-Adapter-PEX2IDE/dp/B000YAX13Y

 

and get a floppy cable with edge socket.  .. if your 5.25inch drive needs it. 

https://www.amazon.com/CablesOnline-Universal-Floppy-Ribbon-5-25in/dp/B00FZ3IL80

I won't need the controller i got a P4 system built that's got a floppy connector. (I think even my 990FXA board has a floppy on it too.  Might be firing up the old 1100T hehe)  Just need that type of lead incase my floppy drive comes with an edge connector like you said

[lordmogul]

22 minutes ago, SimplyChunk said:

Thanks man

I won't need the controller i got a P4 system built that's got a floppy connector. (I think even my 990FXA board has a floppy on it too.  Might be firing up the old 1100T hehe)  Just need that type of lead incase my floppy drive comes with an edge connector like you said

Make sure that you can actually set the right option for a 5.25'' drive. Which would be either 1.2M or 360K, setting it to the 720K or 1.44M for 3.5'' drives will not work. The newer the board, the lower the chance for it to support 5.25'' drives.

[SimplyChunk]

1 hour ago, lordmogul said:

Make sure that you can actually set the right option for a 5.25'' drive. Which would be either 1.2M or 360K, setting it to the 720K or 1.44M for 3.5'' drives will not work. The newer the board, the lower the chance for it to support 5.25'' drives.

Yeah i'll check.  The ones i'm looking at on fleabay are all 1.2MB  I'm guessing they will give me the greater compatibilty with the disks.

[Kilrah]

Are the disks actually DOS-formatted? When 5.25 was current it was used with many completely different and incompatible systems... 

[SimplyChunk]

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

Are the disks actually DOS-formatted? When 5.25 was current it was used with many completely different and incompatible systems... 

I haven't actually asked yet but i'm assuming it's going to be a mix of 720kb and 1.2mb MS-DOS formatted disks.  I've linked my step dad to this thread so he watching what we're all saying.  I'm sure he'd let me know if they were Novell disks or anything

 

Besides I He's told me it's a load of autoCAD drawings on them.  I'm not sure how many systems that was available on back when 5.25 was a thing

[Robchil]

On 6/25/2022 at 8:13 PM, SimplyChunk said:

Besides I He's told me it's a load of autoCAD drawings on them.  I'm not sure how many systems that was available on back when 5.25 was a thing

a few.. PC compatible, Mac, Commodore 64/vic 20- amiga 1000/500 ... atari, zx spectrum?.. i'm sure there are more i don't even know about. most converted to 3.5" around 84-85 but they sold them until 90's 

 

but fewer that could make autoCAD.. 

[SimplyChunk]

1 hour ago, Robchil said:

but fewer that could make autoCAD..

 

Yeah i was on about autoCAD specifically when i said 

 

On 6/25/2022 at 7:13 PM, SimplyChunk said:

I'm not sure how many systems that was available on back when 5.25 was a thing

I know the 5.25 floppy was quite ubiquitous between many different machines and platforms

[wseaton]

Had one of the first 1.2Mb 5.25 drives back on a genuine IBM AT. Utterly unreliable piece of junk.

 

Most of my tech buddies used their 5.25 floppies as lawn jarts. Thrown from a distance those things are like the boomerang from the Road Warrior.

[SimplyChunk]

So i've found a couple of drives haven't pulled the trigger yet though i need to fire up the P4 system and have a dig in the BIOS to make sure it supports 5.25" drives in the first instance.  but we got a price on the drives/cable.  I'm going to phone around a few data recovery services too soo if it's cheaper than the ~£80 we're going to be spending.

Thanks for all your help guys @wseaton @Mel0nMan @Robchil @Kilrah @lordmogul @offweek