Floppy Disc Controller Card

[Garf]

Hello
I want to install a floppy disc on a new computer I am building that doesn't support floppys. ASUS says to install a PCI or PCI E card with a floppy controller on it. I can't find one or anyone that has even heard of one. The closest I can come is an ISA card with an ISA/PCI adapter card. Could this work?

 

[treefrog07]

If your board doesn't support a floppy, it certainly doesn't have any ISA slots. You might be better off getting an external USB floppy drive - here are some and here are some more..

 

[Garf]

I already have an external floppy drive. It's noisy and even slower than the internal. Does thew Iomega dual drive use a floppy interface?

 

[treefrog07]

All the ones I listed earlier are USB; I couldn't find any PCI cards with a floppy controller/socket.

 

[sminlal]

You're on the trailing edge of very old technology. I think it might be time to use the drive on your old system to migrate that data to something current like a USB flash drive.

 

[jitpublisher]

^ Amen. This is like asking "Does anyone know who makes a kit to mount an 8-track tape player in my new BMW?" It is time to get your storage up to date my friend.

Besides that, transferring it to a modern device will be much more secure and dependable than using the old floppy disks, and holy cow at least 100 times faster!

 

[Garf]

My good camera is a Sony Mavica FD-74 that uses floppys for memory storage. As long as it works, I need a floppy drive. It looks like it's going to be an external USB drive no matter what I want. I HATE planned obsolescence.

 

[treefrog07]

I generally agree with you, but we've been using 3.5" floppies since when? 1984 - 26 years! And if you remember the 5.25" floppies they replaced- well they were true "floppy" disks with no hard-shell enclosures.

You know, you could keep an older system on hand just to service your camera.

jitpublisher: I was thinking about getting a BMW, where can I find that kit?

 

[Garf]

I do have an old laptop with a floppy installed. The battery is shot and its not worth replacing, if I could even find one. I would have to do a clean reload of 98SE and photo processing software just to service the camera.

 

[sminlal]

Your good camera is a Mavica?

I had a Mavica FD-81, and it was terrific for it's time. But that time has long gone, and I don't use it any more. For the cost of a USB floppy drive you could pick up a much nicer SD-based point-and-shoot camera from Craigslist.

 

[Garf]

If old technology does what I want to do, why should I replace it. It's perfect for the kind of work I do. That would be a waste of money.

 

[sminlal]

I hear you. I was rightly p*ssed off when I could no longer get functional batteries for my old cell phone and was forced to get a new one. It didn't end up costing me any money, but it still bugged me on principle.

But I've used Mavicas. They're big, the floppy has very limited capacity, and the images really don't hold a candle to what even a cheap modern camera can do.

It just seems to me like you're in a position where you're going to have to spend some money so that you can continue to use the old technology. IMHO you'd be better off spending the same money on slightly newer technology

 

[Garf]

I posted pics on Ebay that were far superior to the bulk of the pics I have seen.

 

[treefrog07]

Just out of curiosity: Why are you building a new computer with a motherboard that does not have a floppy connection? There are many modern and new boards that still have the floppy.

 

[sminlal]

I posted pics on Ebay that were far superior to the bulk of the pics I have seen.

That probably speaks more about the skill of photographers of those pictures than the cameras used to take them...

 

[jitpublisher]

I posted pics on Ebay that were far superior to the bulk of the pics I have seen.

:lol:

 

[Garf]

Just out of curiosity: Why are you building a new computer with a motherboard that does not have a floppy connection? There are many modern and new boards that still have the floppy.

I wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing. I assumed they all supported floppys. Wrong again.

 

[treefrog07]

Maybe you could RMA your board for another that has native floppy support. That sounds like your best option, since we've pretty much exhausted other alternatives.

 

[pjdc3]

I have diligently be looking for the same thing as Garf... and forum after forum I read the same answers. No matter how "old" the 1.44 Floppy is... it will remain relevant until the function of the "F6" key is removed! Besides, it is only adventitious to have system that is able to access the greatest diversity of media possible.

If there is a way of adding an 'internal' Floppy to an USB3 / SATA 6Mb/s motherboad I for one, would appreciate knowing about it.

Thank you to anyone that is able to shed any light on this problem.

n newbie [ˈnjubiː]
(1)
(2) Users of "contemporary" technology Only.

 

[sminlal]

...it is only adventitious to have system that is able to access the greatest diversity of media possible.

What about a 5.25" floppy drive - do you need one of those too? How about an 8" floppy drive?

Where do you draw the line?

 

[pjdc3]

No, I don't have an 8in; but the 5¼, 3½, ZIP, etc., I have in a PC I'm networked with. As far as Needing them... no, the're for "Just-in-Case", which has only happened a time, or two to convert media (and nostalgia, of course).

The 3½ FDD is different... it is Needed to load (some) drivers when doing a Windows install. The're also like using a PS2 keyboard instead of USB... when there are Boot Up problems, only the old stuff gives you access fix it.

If you're gaming, or doing office work you don't need the Floppy, but if you're doing repairs, it's handy as hell at times.

 

[sminlal]

Well, this is just my opinion, but....

Modern systems can boot and load drivers from a USB key or CD/DVD. Keep your old system with the old drives around if you need to do conversions, but a new system with software less than 5 years old really doesn't need a floppy for anything.

If you've got old software, just hang on to old hardware for it. You don't need a USB 3.0 / SATA 6Mbit/sec motherboard to run DOS or Windows 98. If you want to consolidate your hardware, then run the old stuff in a virtual machine that supports virtual floppy drives.

 

[Paul Elliott]

I was also looking for a PCI floppy controller for a 5 1/4 drive. Not a lot of luck.
My problem is that I didn't pay close enough attention to the mb specs and didn't realize that a lot of them now
come with no floppy interface at all. My old system died suddenly and I hadn't transferred all the big disks over to
the hard drive or cd. And didn't realize the loss of the connections until I had spent too much time without a
working system to return the mb & start over. I added a 3 1/2 external usb drive but had to add it to a powered
hup as the mb/powersupply/whatever wouldn't reliably recognize it at startup. The bios has options to recognize
it as a floppy and XP doesn't seem to have much problem using it ( just slower than a mb-connected drive ).

However, I did find Device Side Data has a FC5025 interface at
http://www.deviceside.com/fc5025.html

It's not cheap at $55 and $5 shipping but looks like it could work. But at the moment I can't afford it.
It connects the drive to an internal USB connection.

Has anyone else seen this? My other option may be to rip apart a 3 1/2 usb drive & hook that up somehow.
The only problem might be that it needs to be on the inside for power & outside to usb connection.

Any thoughts? Other than the obvious about outdated equipment.

 

[sminlal]

The USB-to-floppy device is interesting, but since it requires it's own software I'd be a little concerned about compatibility issues.

If I desperately needed to transfer stuff from an old floppy then I'd go looking at Craigslist or a computer swap meet for an older system with a floppy controller integrated on the motherboard. You should be able to get something pretty cheap and it ought to work just fine with whatever OS is on it.

 

[Paul Elliott]

Ok. I was hoping that it would work like the 3 1/2 usb drives but just got an email
back stating that it uses a different protocol and you need to use their software.

Guess I'll start looking for an old small system that can handle both size floppies.
Won't need much to run dos.