The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

28 October 2006

Older and floppier

Budgets being what they are, 42nd and Treadmill isn't exactly replete with the latest hardware: while some of our stuff is fairly current (by which we mean "still supported"), some of it is downright ancient.

There's one old printer we're keeping alive for another year, just for routine green-bar reports. We still have a service contract on it, and when it began acting up this summer, we duly sent for a tech. To our surprise, he brought, in addition to replacements for the failed parts, a copy of the latest version of the machine's operating code — on a 720k floppy, dated 1995, sealed in one of those static-free bags presumably for the last eleven years. "In case you needed a backup," he said. Sensible enough. The actual code we've been using is from 1994, and as it happens, I did have a backup copy of it: on the only other 720k floppy any of us have seen in years. (The printer has its own floppy drive, wherein the original disk resides. Or maybe it's the backup; I don't remember for sure.)

So I can relate to this:

Normally a media sensing floppy drive is a good thing ... except for when you've got old 720K original distribution diskettes you want to make copies of so the originals can be tucked away safely somewhere and the copies used instead.

Finding a new 720K floppy diskette these days is near impossible, so one is forced to try this ploy using obtainable 1.44M diskettes. OK, so I put some tape over the hole in the 1.44M diskettes and got them to format as 720K. Problem solved.

But not immediately, apparently:

But still, if I tell the format utility to format a diskette as 720K, damnit, I want it to try, not just quit and refuse to do it. At least ask me if I want to give it a whirl.

For the hell of it, I looked on eBay for 720k drives. Going price was $135. Geez. I should have kept the 8-inchers out of our old System/36.

Posted at 12:01 PM to PEBKAC


Could be worse. Could've been 5-1/4" 360K floppies from the late Cretaceous.

Posted by: McGehee at 2:41 PM on 28 October 2006

I suspect I may still have a few of those, hidden behind a box of daisywheels.

Posted by: CGHill at 2:45 PM on 28 October 2006

If ya ever need them, I've got a used 5-1/4" 360K drive and a couple of NEW, never spun 5-1/4" 1.2 MB drives, Chinon brand I think. Also have several unopened boxes of 3M 1.2MB diskettes. I probably have some 360K used diskettes somewhere. All that and more in my inventory and parts room in what I call the Smithsonian section.

Posted by: Winston at 5:42 AM on 29 October 2006