Windows 10: Reading old floppy discs on Windows 10

Discus and support Reading old floppy discs on Windows 10 in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware to solve the problem; I found a box of old floppy discs from Seattle File Works SFW which contained photos from the 1990's. I bought USB floppy drive from Amazon to read... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware' started by STuHolden, Nov 29, 2020.

  1. STuHolden Win User

    Reading old floppy discs on Windows 10


    I found a box of old floppy discs from Seattle File Works SFW which contained photos from the 1990's.



    I bought USB floppy drive from Amazon to read the discs, but as I discovered from searching, the floppy disc data format has changed over time; most of my old SFW discs gave an error that the disc was not formatted and could not be read.

    This apparently was due to a change in the boot sectors - the later floppies have a media description byte which Windows 10 needs to read the disc.

    Through trial and error, I found that I could read the old discs if I started with a newer disc and displayed the disc contents, and then swapped the disc for an old disc, and then clicked on a file on the c: drive; Windows apparently does not see the disc change.


    If I then clicked back to the A: drive, the drive would read the disc without rereading the boot sector and I’d see the old disc’s contents.

    I could then copy the SFW files to the c: drive and repeat the process with the next old disc.

    :)
     
    STuHolden, Nov 29, 2020
    #1
  2. Cliff 45 Win User

    Driver for Floppy discs ?

    I have a hardware unit that connects to my PC via USB to allow it to read the old floppy discs.
    However, when inserted I receive a message that it cannot be read. Several of them are from
    an old Mavica camera and I would like to be able to see and/or copy them to a DVD.
    Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.
     
    Cliff 45, Nov 29, 2020
    #2
  3. BSJ68 Win User
    windows 10 floppy disc

    I have a commercial embroidery machine and all of my past customer designs are on floppy disc, My new machine will run off of a flash drive but I still need to pull up old files from the floppy disc and transfer them to the flash drive
     
    BSJ68, Nov 29, 2020
    #3
  4. Reading old floppy discs on Windows 10

    Windows 95 Floppy Disc

    My friend has a windows 95 floppy disc that was used to back-up an old computer, which she no longer has in her possession. She needs to get the data off of the floppy disc, but doesn't know how to do it. Is there a service or portable disc reader that
    could recover the data from the disc and transfer it to a thumb drive?
     
    PatriciaK16, Nov 29, 2020
    #4
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Reading old floppy discs on Windows 10

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