Category Archives: Floppies

Dirty Work

Posted on July 9, 2021 by Michal Necasek

As I’m slowly archiving my giant pile of floppies, I naturally come across specimens that have one kind of problem or another. After going through hundreds of floppies, I can safely say that 3½″ floppies are much less prone to … Continue reading →

Posted in Archiving, Floppies | 5 Comments

Diskette Puzzle

Posted on February 25, 2021 by Michal Necasek

Last week the OS/2 Museum received a classic red NetWare box with all sorts of junk inside: PCI and ISA network cards (most Ethernet, one ArcNET), BNC cabling, one or two manuals, and over a 100 floppies, mostly NetWare but … Continue reading →

Posted in Archiving, Floppies, NetWare | 20 Comments

Kryofluxing PC Floppies

Posted on March 16, 2019 by Michal Necasek

Last year I finally bought a Kryoflux, unfortunately in the middle of moving house. Now I’m finally able to use it beyond verifying that it’s not completely broken. After imaging a few dozens of floppies, I can say one thing–Kryoflux … Continue reading →

Posted in Floppies, Kryoflux, PC hardware | 11 Comments

There’s Another Possibility

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Michal Necasek

Four years ago we pondered why on Earth a DOS floppy boot sector might start with 69h, supposedly a “direct jump” opcode. Which is the IMUL instruction on 80186 and later, and not documented on 8086. In the meantime, it … Continue reading →

Posted in DOS, Floppies | 57 Comments

More Wobbles

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Michal Necasek

This is a follow-up to a previous post. I’ve had a chance to spend more time recovering the two dead PS/2 Model 80s. The first step was replacing the CMOS batteries because without a functioning backup battery, a PS/2 is … Continue reading →

Posted in Floppies, IBM, PS/2 | 10 Comments

Wobbly Floppy Drive?

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Michal Necasek

Over the weekend I tried to revive a PS/2 Model 80 whose CMOS battery died (after 25 years!). Finding a replacement battery fortunately isn’t difficult (6V lithium “photo” battery), but recreating the configuration information of course requires a reference floppy and … Continue reading →

Posted in Floppies, IBM, Plug and Play, PS/2 | 30 Comments

Floppy Capacity Math

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Michal Necasek

After more or less accidentally coming across a BBS listing of various high-capacity floppy formatting programs, I began wondering: How much data can really be stored on a diskette in a PC floppy drive? And what’s the relationship between formatted … Continue reading →

Posted in Floppies, PC hardware | 38 Comments

Kids These Days, Continued

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Michal Necasek

As the OS/2 museum pointed out, many kids these days don’t really know how to properly use floppies. Fortunately, not all is lost and at least some youngsters know exactly what to do with a 3½” diskette. First, firmly hold … Continue reading →

Posted in Floppies | 6 Comments

The Central Point Backup Floppy Format

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Michal Necasek

A reader recently asked about the “native” format of Central Point Backup (CP Backup) floppies. Diskettes formatted in this manner are somewhat tricky to work with as they do not use a standard DOS format. A session with Sydex’s AnaDisk … Continue reading →

Posted in DOS, Floppies | 28 Comments

Kids these days…

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Michal Necasek

By sheer accident I stumbled on this document. In summary, it’s about a bunch of school kids working on a computer history preservation project and trying to archive a big box of floppies from George Alistair Sanger, a video game … Continue reading →

Posted in DOS, Floppies | 22 Comments