Old floppy disks ...

[sim085]

Hello, I have found a group of old floppy disks (pre-1994 I think). These floppy disks have only 1 hole like the Amiga floppy disks used to have. However the software on them is for a Windows machine I think. My question is; did Windows machines accept floppy disks with 1 hole? and if yes, is there a way how I can read the files on these floppy disks? maybe on my amiga (I tried from a Pentium III, but this tells me to format the disks).

[Rob]

Yes Windows worked with double density (DD) floppies.  In MSDOS/Windows you could format them for 720kb whereas the Amiga could format them for 880kb.

You can read Windows formatted disks on an Amiga using Crossdos or Fat95.  You can also use high density (HD) floppies as DD by taping over the hole.

[sim085]

Yes Windows worked with double density (DD) floppies.  In MSDOS/Windows you could format them for 720kb whereas the Amiga could format them for 880kb.

You can read Windows formatted disks on an Amiga using Crossdos or Fat95.  You can also use high density (HD) floppies as DD by taping over the hole.

... and on a windows machine? Can I see the contents of these floppy disks ... and maybe run the programs there in.

[AmmoJammo]

if it doesn't work in your current floppy drive, try finding an older one.

usb floppy drives probably wont read it.

[koaftder]

Why not just shove the disk in the drive and see what happens?

[Ilwrath]

Why not just shove the disk in the drive and see what happens?

He says he did, and Windows helpfully offered to format it for him.

Most "new" (say manufactured in the past two decades) 3.5 floppy drives don't support DD disks, anymore.  AmmoJammo is correct.  Look for an older floppy drive if you must read it on a PC.

CrossDOS on Amiga is probably the easiest solution for today, though.

[Zac67]

PC HD floppy drives can also read/write DD disks. If they don't work they may have bit rot.

PS: Does the PC drive work at all? Frequently, they're so clogged up with dust that they don't.

[J-Golden]

I know I ran into issues with DD disks on Windows XP as it would not recognize it and ONLY offer HD formatting.

Don't format it, but allow the computer to open up the requester so you can see if your OS will recognize DD by looking under the format options.

[paul1981]

Hello, I have found a group of old floppy disks (pre-1994 I think). These floppy disks have only 1 hole like the Amiga floppy disks used to have. However the software on them is for a Windows machine I think. My question is; did Windows machines accept floppy disks with 1 hole? and if yes, is there a way how I can read the files on these floppy disks? maybe on my amiga (I tried from a Pentium III, but this tells me to format the disks).

My floppy drive on my xp pc accepts DD and HD disks. However, it can't format a DD disk itself unless I do it from the command prompt directly.

Your disks may not be pc formatted disks (you said so yourself). They could be atari disks or acorn disks, or they may not even be formatted at all.

There's a tool called OmniFlop.exe (Windows program) that can probably identify the disks and read their contents. I used it to get data from my old acorn disks.

[AmmoJammo]

As mentioned above, since Windows XP, there was no option to format 720k discs (except using command prompt)

FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9

however, if the drive is suitable, it should still read them.

I got myself a FREE black internal floppy drive a few months ago, just for transferring small files back from the Amiga

[Zac67]

In case anyone needs a floppy drive - we've got a rather large stack at the office (used). Free for postage.

I'm pretty sure all of them work with DD as well - but there may be limitations to the controllers on somewhat modern boards. Had to find out the hard way when a P4/Prescott machine wouldn't use the second drive...

Of course, recent boards ceased to support floppies at all, so get a USB drive.