File extraction from very old drive & disk

giz1

So this is a very unusual one but I have a 3 inch floppy disk circa year 1994 approx.... and then an old PC tower from 2000... both have files on them I was wondering is it even possible to retrieve these .. as said very unusual Q... but figured if anyone knows someone here might

Charles Babbage

There exist usb drives for 3.5" floppies, if you can borrow one of those then you can try, after 30 years the disk may not be in good shape.

In relation to the tower, does it boot? Does it have a CD drive? Does it have a network card?

giz1

Would you believe its 3in disk older again then the 3.5 ... as for tower it has cd drive . Ain't tried boot in years and tbh I don't no about network card sorry.. only stumbled across the disk today looking though old boxes and said I'd ask and remembered the tower so say ask about both

db

A floppy disk is either 5.25" or 3.5". The 3.5" disk was in a hard plastic case with a cover that slides back to allow the heads read the disk. If it is any size other than this it is a different type of disk and will therefore need a different type of drive to read it. It may be an Iomega Zip disk which were often used for large portable storage in the late 90's.

niallb

If it's a 3 inch floppy it could also be from an Amstrad CPC or PCW.

They were a big deal in the late 80's!

This page might point you towards some equipment you could buy or borrow to get the data off them:

https://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/3inch_floppy.html

z80CPU

Or as used in a zx spectrum +3

Spear

There's plenty of retro computing devices/systems to retrieve old media e.g. greaseweasel drives, even some of the weird formats from the early 80s. Post a pic of the disk and we should be able to identify it.

db

https://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/3inch_floppy.html

An interesting read here on some of those 3" formats