Kane99 Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 I have some really old floppy disks that I would like to check. I think some of them have photos of family from back in the early 2000s. My sister had one of those video cameras that took floppies and she had floppies for days in a box. We kids used it a lot back then. Could you buy USB floppy drives? I would like to be able to port these images over to a new PC, as my old PC no longer works and I don't have any other ways at the moment to recover it. I have no intentions of installing a floppy drive in my PC, I don't even know if I can lol. But I'm sure there are USB drives for floppies. But, what about the really old floppy disks? the ones for like a commodore or something. Is there any USB devices that would let me view the files on them? I imagine with those it'll be a bit tougher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 Not sure on Windows but I assume, some of the Linux distros are still capable of reading old hard disks, floppy disks and other card reader formats. So that may be one way for you to read those devices and it's files in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empire Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 The most system will read old to new format anyway. I mean if you have photoshop it will read just about any format and then save it as PNG or whatever. Just insert your floppy disc into your drive that's plugged into the USB socket and then remove the data onto your PC or USB drive. Then use Photoshop to open if it needs editing or converting. In your case what's the format of the images and data on the floppy discs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 The easiest way if you aren't planning to go through complicated process would be buying some old PC (something from the first Pentium 4 PC's should get the job done), they come with support for floppy disks and they shouldn't cost more than 15$ (worldwide) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 23 hours ago, Patrik said: The easiest way if you aren't planning to go through complicated process would be buying some old PC (something from the first Pentium 4 PC's should get the job done), they come with support for floppy disks and they shouldn't cost more than 15$ (worldwide) I think the biggest issue would be reading the floppy disk on windows 7 and windows 10. I don't think it would be possible to read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 1 hour ago, skyfire said: I think the biggest issue would be reading the floppy disk on windows 7 and windows 10. I don't think it would be possible to read it. That's why i said complicated process, those old Pentium 4 Prebuilts usually come with windows XP installed, so having floppy disks read on them is pretty easy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empire Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 Only way to see it works, just go ahead and give it a try 🙂 Or this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Floppy-External-Drive-Portable-Windows/dp/B01FXNDJGU/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=floppy+discs+windows+10&qid=1612704077&sr=8-1 COmes with Sotware anyway that you can read and whatnot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 never knew that floppy drives had the USB port. not bad. I think such interface making is kind of makes it easy for reading over the years. hope that helps the OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 On 2/17/2021 at 3:06 AM, skyfire said: never knew that floppy drives had the USB port. not bad. I think such interface making is kind of makes it easy for reading over the years. hope that helps the OP. Just like you have external blu ray drives. Most of them are just plug and play so it's not difficult to set up and a breeze to run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empire Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 You can pickup any related external USB devices nowadys, people can thought of an idea and BANG. Even USB fan cooling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 5 hours ago, Empire said: You can pickup any related external USB devices nowadys, people can thought of an idea and BANG. Even USB fan cooling. It makes you realize how inefficient PC builds used to be because we crammed out PCs with all these drives when hardly used them back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 I think if this idea works with floppy and the USB, then building console that could read the floppy with raspberry pi would be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Empire Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 17 hours ago, skyfire said: I think if this idea works with floppy and the USB, then building console that could read the floppy with raspberry pi would be interesting. Seems that he knows what he wanted to do before making a video that stats that he's new at it 😛 You can get a full Starter Kit it that comes with powered mouse and keybord with 16gb or 32gb SD card with a Moniter that has a HDMI slots and yes TV can be Used Provided thay have HDMI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 19 hours ago, skyfire said: I think if this idea works with floppy and the USB, then building console that could read the floppy with raspberry pi would be interesting. If it works with a Raspberry Pi, it'll work with anything because Linux makes using the simplest USB accessory a task. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyfire Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 On 3/1/2021 at 7:48 PM, killamch89 said: If it works with a Raspberry Pi, it'll work with anything because Linux makes using the simplest USB accessory a task. Yes and the best part is that it is long term usable unlike windows which is not so possible for stay on device forever without update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
