Re: Search engine archive

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Patricia M Godfrey wrote:

> A few days ago someone mentioned having files on 5.25-inch disks.
> Assuming the disks are still readable (and I've been going crazy with
> not-that-old 3-inch floppies that keep coming up with bad sectors), I
> have a PC with a 5-inch drive in it.

Unfortunately, those disks are apt to have family or personal stuff on them
as well. (I've _always_ kept most of my data files on removeable media.)
This will provide a good excuse for finding a way -- locally -- to finally
process that last stack of 5.25"-ers. After that, I sure don't want to find
any more I may have overlooked.

> I also have a couple of 5" drives
> lying about, and would be glad to send one to anyone who wants to get
> that data off (I'd actually prefer that to trying to read the data off
> the floppies myself, a tedious and time-consuming task). You'd have to be
> "comfortable" opening the case and installing a drive; check the floppy
> cable, as 5-inch drives generally used a different connector (flat edge
> connector, not multipin socket) to the cable. I have some cables too, but
> the socket on the MOBO is often in such an awkward spot that you mightn't
> want to swap cables as well. Also make sure the BIOS supports 5-inch
> floppies.

I still have one of those drives in storage, and believe the current hardware
would support it. But it would be a real PITA to hook that up again, as you
indicated. That would be a last resort. I'd much rather find a Kinkos in
town that would have time rentals available on such a machine. If they did,
I could probably just bring my Zip drive along, or take a stack of 3.5"
blanks.

Jordan