Floppy Drive

[chadxxx]

I have an old dell computer with a 3.5" Samsung SFD-321J/ADN floppy drive. Is it possible to recover my photos off of this? and if so, how do i go about doing it? thanks!

[DaveLembke]

Well the data would be on the floppy disks if you have them or if you have floppy disks you can copy the images to the floppy disk from old computer. Then getting your data off the disks you can simply buy a USB Floppy Drive connect it to any modern computer to USB 2.0 or 3.0 port and access your floppies on the A: drive to access pictures.

Biggest thing to do before you buy a USB Floppy drive is place a disk into the drive on old computer and see if you can access teh data there. then create a new file and see if it opens ok. If this works then your floppy drive isnt too dirty and still works. It would be a shame to buy a USB Floppy drive and not have an original floppy drive that is healthy to copy data to floppies. So knowing that the old floppy drive is healthy is important. * However if you have a stack of old floppies and want access to the data on these then it might be worth it to buy the USB Floppy drive anyways even if the internal floppy drive is junk.

If this computer is running Windows 98 or newer OS you might be able to copy them to a USB stick and not deal with the floppy drive all together, however best results for a thumb drive is Windows 2000 or XP or newer OS for flash drive support. Some flash drives support Win 98 but most require newer OS for driver support.

Here is a Win 98 system that was set up for USB drive support: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Use-USB-Drives-With-Windows-98/

I haven't tried it with 98 myself but have used USB Flash Drives on Windows 2000 SP4 and XP successfully.

If its Windows 95 or older as well as if you want fewest headaches in getting your data here are 2 options:

#1 Remove the hard drive from that computer and get a empty external hard drive enclosure for it to install the drive into that enclosure making an external USB Hard drive. *You will need a USB to IDE type enclosure. If its a laptop it would be a 2.5" enclosure and if its a desktop a 3.5"

#2 If you dont want to remove the hard drive then its a process of booting the old system and  copying the pictures to the floppy disk(s) and by use of purchasing a USB Floppy drive being able to read the floppy disks with a modern computer with this drive. They run about $25 or so USD.

[patio]

I don't think the data is on floppies...unless i misunderstood...
He can pull the old HDD and connect it as a slave on a working system to retrieve whatever he wants...

[DaveLembke]

He can pull the old HDD and connect it as a slave on a working system to retrieve whatever he wants...

His newer computer may not have an PATA / IDE controller... so thats why I suggested connecting the drive to an External IDE to USB case as an option.  Computers with Floppy drives dried up around 2004 ish and most of those systems were PATA / IDE drive systems of like 80GB like the Compaq S6030NX that I bought in 2003. Around 2004 floppy drives started to dry up on most new computers and SATA 1.5 drives started to come out on the higher end systems vs PATA / IDE drives. So my guess is that the system has an IDE drive in it. Which most newer computers lack unless custom built system with a legacy optioned motherboard that has both PATA / IDE and SATA controller on it.

[chadxxx]

It is an older dell computer. I never used floppie discs but I must have had some internal storgae correct? I had alot of pictures stored somewhere on it...where else would those pictures be?

[patio]

They are on the HDD...open the case and post the info from its sticker.

[chadxxx]

This may sound dumb but i thought that the floppy drive was the hard drive? I pulled the floppy drive, what does the HDD look like and where would it be in the computer? Do you mean to open the floppy drive case?

[patio]

No...the HDD is inside the case...its about 5" x 4" and usually silver colored mounted in a drive bay...
If you are new to this ask someone you know to assist

[DaveLembke]

Here is picture of one to help identify it:

https://images.app.goo.gl/32E7tAje3gkwdMM59

[chadxxx]

It's a western digital serial ATA hard drive. WD Caviar SE. S/N: wmam94458093. Model :wd800jd-75jna0

[DaveLembke]

Cool that drive is an early SATA 1.5 which can connect to any available SATA port inside a modern computer and you will have direct access to your files easily without spending any money assuming your current computer is a desktop computer and has room to install and connect that drive. Just have 2 connections the SATA Power and SATA Communication cable. Be sure only to install with computer powered off.

After you get your pictures copied from this 80GB drive if you dont have a need for your old computer you could leave it installed in your computer and format the 80GB drive and use it as a backup location for important data to store pictures and current important data onto 2 hard drives in your system so that if one drive dies you have your data safe on the other. *Note the only risk with a local backup on 2 drives in a system is if you get a virus it can spread to both, so external backup of some kind such as external hard drive or a google drive is best.

[chadxxx]

Thank you sir. You most certainly rock!

[patio]

Yes...he does...

[chadxxx]

Will i have to format this hdd to read everything?

[patio]

NO !  Retrieve date 1st...then format.