5 1/4" floppy disks

[royfarnol]

I have some old 5 1/4" floppy disks some of which have stuff on them that II would like to retrieve.

There does not seem to be any kind of available external drive with a USB connection so how could I set about getting this old stuff from the disk onto my laptop?

Thanks, Roy.

[Rudi]

According to this article, it's more a case of luck if anything salvageable will come from it, given the lifespan of those magnetic discs. Also, it would be near impossible to find a drive (let alone one with a USB port) to do a transfer. On the other hand, there are places you can go to (or send your discs to) that specialize in Data Recovery. Here is one who claims to be able to assist.

If you are a DIY type, here is a rudimentary method: A company called Device Side Data produces a device called the FC5025 which can adapt a 5 1/4" drive to a USB port. You will still need to power the drive so this approach will require either an external power source or a tower or desktop computer. There are also other limitations to this device, such as the inability to write to the disks or to read most forms of copy protection (back when these drives were common there was a technique to protect their contents form copying by writing intentionally bad data).

[Claude]

I no longer have a 5¼" drive, but, I've got a few boxes (sealed) of them which I keep for useless presents.

[viking33]

Rudi said:
There are also other limitations to this device, such as the inability to write to the disks or to read most forms of copy protection (back when these drives were common there was a technique to protect their contents form copying by writing intentionally bad data).
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This was merely a slip of opaque tape that was put over the disk "write protect" notch. The drive would sense if this slot was open or closed and if so, would prevent writing to the disk. Reading was still possible.

I think the consensus is that 5 1/4" USB drives are not available, where 3 1/2" are around. If you had an old computer with an available parallel port on the MB and had a compatible flat data cable with a Molex style power connector, you might get the drive to work and retrieve data. ( I've still got a few drives and cables stored away for what ever reason but no machine with a MB and a port connector )
I think you may be out of luck on this unless you pay for a company to copy these disks. ( if they are very important to you, of course )

[royfarnol]

Thanks to Rudi, Claude & Viking33 for your answers.

Some avenues to explore at least.

Much obliged, Roy.