Comments on: How can I retrieve data from my old 3 1/4 inch floppies? http://www.powermax.com/askjacob/2009/12/how-can-i-retrieve-data-from-my-old-3-14-inch-floppies/ Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:14:21 +0000 hourly 1 By: Patrick Henry http://www.powermax.com/askjacob/2009/12/how-can-i-retrieve-data-from-my-old-3-14-inch-floppies/comment-page-1/#comment-6750 Patrick Henry Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:41:04 +0000 http://www.powermax.com/askjacob/?p=1561#comment-6750 All generations of iMac, of course, do not have floppy drives. It is very likely that these Claris CAD files are stored on 800K (double-sided) floppies, which can only be read on the special drives that were commonplace in Macintosh systems.  If the disks are the 1.4 MB (high-density) kind, then a modern USB floppy drive should read them. If you have an external USB floppy drive (typically by Imation or VST), an 800K floppy disk will usually give an error and the computer will ask to format it. Again, this is assuming you are using a newer Macintosh which can mount HFS volumes. In essence, only an Apple disk drive in an old-world Macintosh will read these disks. Then the files can be converted and copied to 1.4 MB disks that modern drives can read. Last of all, Claris CAD files are forked, which can result in corruption if used on a non-Macintosh system. I would use Claris Graphics Translator to convert the files to Autocad DXF with which modern programs play nicely.      All generations of iMac, of course, do not have floppy drives. It is very likely that these Claris CAD files are stored on 800K (double-sided) floppies, which can only be read on the special drives that were commonplace in Macintosh systems. 

If the disks are the 1.4 MB (high-density) kind, then a modern USB floppy drive should read them. If you have an external USB floppy drive (typically by Imation or VST), an 800K floppy disk will usually give an error and the computer will ask to format it. Again, this is assuming you are using a newer Macintosh which can mount HFS volumes. In essence, only an Apple disk drive in an old-world Macintosh will read these disks. Then the files can be converted and copied to 1.4 MB disks that modern drives can read.

Last of all, Claris CAD files are forked, which can result in corruption if used on a non-Macintosh system. I would use Claris Graphics Translator to convert the files to Autocad DXF with which modern programs play nicely.     

]]> By: Wanda Lichtenberg http://www.powermax.com/askjacob/2009/12/how-can-i-retrieve-data-from-my-old-3-14-inch-floppies/comment-page-1/#comment-6679 Wanda Lichtenberg Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:21:12 +0000 http://www.powermax.com/askjacob/?p=1561#comment-6679 Did I miss something? The first question is - HOW do you copy a 3-1/4 floppy to the hard drive of a computer that does not have a floppy drive. What external hard drive would you recommend to connect to the computer - to enable copying these particular floppies to computer? Did I miss something? The first question is – HOW do you copy a 3-1/4 floppy to the hard drive of a computer that does not have a floppy drive. What external hard drive would you recommend to connect to the computer – to enable copying these particular floppies to computer?

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