How to read a floppy on a modern computer | Tips and Tricks

Those who have a few years on their shoulders remember the legendary ones floppy disk, economical and portable mass storage units.
Before the advent of CDs and USB sticks, they were the most practical method for transferring documents between PCs.
Their use to save files has been so constant and lasting that it has left an indelible imprint in IT, even today, if you notice, the icon of the command “Save”In many PC programs is the stylized representation of a floppy disk.
In case you have found one in a drawer and you are curious to know what it contains, or you need to use them, by continuing to read the article you will see how to read a floppy on a modern computer.

How does a floppy disk work?

Floppy disks are simple magnetic disks made of flexible material, protected by a coating of hard plastic material with a vaguely square shape. The data is permanently written to the disk via a head. In general, the data are written on sectors or tracks, the former are corner portions, the latter are concentric circles.

Throughout the history of computer science, various floppy formats have been seen, each with some different characteristics, the 8-inch and 5.25-inch ones have a hole in their center, while the 3.5-inch ones have a hole in the center. circular metal pin that allows you to spin the disc.

The 3.5 ”drives were designed to be more durable, they have a single opening from which you can access the delicate internal magnetic disk. This opening is protected by a protective tab (usually made of metal) to prevent the magnetic disc from being touched and damaged.

Very short history of floppies

The history of floppy disks is a great piece of the history of computing. In this article we will limit ourselves to a very brief summary.

The first 8 ”(20 cm side) floppy disks were launched on the market by IBM back in 1971. They quickly became irreplaceable, even if a single disk could only hold 79.7 KB.

Their evolution called in jargon “Mini floppy“And large 5” and 1/4 (13 cm side) was developed by Shugart Associates and launched in 1976. The format was immediately successful and spread rapidly, the first version could contain 160 kB of data; later double-sided versions were launched capable of containing twice as much.

Already in the first half of the 80s the storage capacity was insufficient, Sony studied and launched the 3.5 inch floppy (9 cm side). It was called “micro floppy”And remained popular until the end of the 90s.

A 3.5 “floppy in its first version called DD (Double Density) contained 720 kB of data, the HD (High Density) version, which are the only ones still” in use “, contains 1440 kB of data (1.44 MB).

The definitive decline of the format took place only in the early 2000s with the spread of the Internet and USB sticks. Gradually the floppy drive disappeared from our PCs because it was essentially unused. To give you an idea, about 5700 HD floppy disks can be stored in a common and inexpensive 8 GB USB stick.

How to read and write a floppy disk today?

There may be occasions when it is still essential to use floppy disks. Maybe we need to recover data that we saved a few decades ago, or we need to interact with systems that have not been updated or are not updatable.

To use a floppy disk on a modern system, you must, in most cases, use a convenient USB external reader for Floppy Disk.

It will surprise you to know that no modern operating system has at the moment abandoned support for old and dear floppies. Even the Linux kernel has recently seen the addition of several lines of code aimed at improving support for floppy disks.

Then just insert the USB cable of the floppy disk reader into the PC to see the drive recognized.

If you have an older model USB floppy disk drive, which was common in the 90’s by laptop manufacturers, you can still use it, just plug it into a modern Windows 10 PC and it should be recognized in most cases.

Here are the best USB drives for reading and writing 3.5-inch floppies

Where to buy floppy disks today?

There are still packs of floppy disks for sale, in fact old disks deteriorate easily and, if the systems continue to work, they must be replaced cyclically.
By now using floppies is certainly not cheap, but here are which discs you can buy to have good quality products (in some periods the products may not be available):

How to read and write on a 5.25 inch floppy

To read and write old 5 1/4 inch floppies the situation is much more complicated. There are only two viable methods:

• use an older PC with a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive on which to install Windows 95 SE, Windows 98 or ME and download the extracted files with a USB stick. These systems support Plug and Play system should support dongles without complications.
• take an old 5.25-inch floppy drive and connect it to a modern PC via a dedicated USB adapter, to power it you will also need an old power supply with a Molex connector. Both are not easy to find, an American site sells them, but it is a fairly expensive solution.