What emulators are there for the 80s 8-bit microcomputers, that simulate the incidental noises the machine makes — particularly, the sounds of the floppy drive? [more inside]
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits on Mar 18, 2013 - 5 answers

I was having one of those "I walked to to school uphill both ways" discussions with friends and the question came up: What software product shipped on the largest number of floppy disks? I'm having trouble tracking it down, but I have some recollection that A/UX shipped on some insane number of diskettes, like 20 or 30, before Apple started selling it on a hard drive.
posted by LastOfHisKind on Oct 6, 2012 - 19 answers

Help searching for old PC and Playstation 1 games? Probably about early to mid 90's [more inside]
posted by LittleNami on Jul 29, 2012 - 10 answers

What is the best way to preserve 3.5" floppies? [more inside]
posted by skbw on Dec 4, 2011 - 4 answers

I need suggestions for old DOS era games that only supported playing with the original floppy disk(s) in drive A: and offered no hard disk install option. [more inside]
posted by jklaiho on Oct 1, 2011 - 20 answers

Help me install Ubuntu Linux 10.04 on an old laptop that's long in the tooth but generally functional. Some challenges within. [more inside]
posted by intermod on Nov 28, 2010 - 14 answers

Floppy disk recovery service: I recently came across a cache of some very old 3.5" floppy disks of mine. Windows XP can't read these DOS disks. I would like to ship these off to a professional service which will safely export the data (onto a CD, say) and send it all back to me. Can you recommend a company which provides this sort of service? Thanks.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell on Jan 31, 2010 - 12 answers

How do I get files from my modern PC onto an ancient Macintosh? [more inside]
posted by Sys Rq on Apr 28, 2009 - 19 answers

Double whammy! Persistent "ghost" floppy drive, and slow, halting performance, all on my parents' PC. [more inside]
posted by curagea on Dec 27, 2008 - 8 answers

Why do I get floppy feet after I run? They don't hurt, so I don't think they're shin splints...they just flop around when I try to walk. Help? [more inside]
posted by cheeken on Oct 27, 2008 - 7 answers

How do you boot via a USB flash drive using a floppy? [more inside]
posted by remi on Jan 20, 2008 - 12 answers

My Computer detects a floppy drive when there isnt one installed ......... [more inside]
posted by sgt.serenity on Jan 4, 2008 - 8 answers

Floppy disks? Are you kidding me? I haven't used Symantec Ghost in a long time, but am forced to at the moment. Even back then, floppies were on the way out, and now they're flat-out gone. But as far as I can tell, Ghost still absolutely flat-out requires you to use floppies (which can then be transferred on to CDs) in order to function. Am I right? And if I am, isn't this absolutely insane?
posted by Sinner on Nov 16, 2006 - 19 answers

I have an old IBM PCjr 4860 that once upon a time we added a jrCaptain Tecmar extension piece onto it so we could attach a printer. I have three questions. I want to get rid of this beast but I want to print everything off the disks (I was quite the prolific writer as a kid). Unfortunately we lost the jrCaptain power transformer and cable (power supply) for this extension piece so we think that's why every time we turn on the printer it stops the computer from doing anything (no keyboard, no running of whatever it was running) and then upon turning off the printer it suddenly is back to normal. Where can I get my hands on that power supply or what could I use in it's place that wouldn't kill the extension. (voltage?) Second question: what about a way to transfer the big floppies onto a modern storage device? What are the options out there? Anything I can do at home? Any places that do this for you? Third question: what do I do with an old IBM PCjr when I want to toss it? [more inside]
posted by toftk on Jun 11, 2006 - 6 answers

How do I get something other then a floppy drive to show up as the a: drive in Windows 2000? It could be a USB jump drive or a mapped drive, it doesn't matter so long as it's not a floppy. I have an old legacy application that only loads its data from a:, and it's driving me insane keeping stacks of floppies around.
posted by voidcontext on Jan 16, 2006 - 10 answers

I'm looking for some floppy shoes. [more inside]
posted by bshort on Jan 4, 2006 - 9 answers

There is a vintage game called "Cosmos Osmos" for the old Mac OS and would be loaded with several floppy disc's. I have searched all over the web (including mac garden and googleing) and have been unable to find ANYTHING regarding the game. It was surely at least 15 years ago from when I owned the game and was when Mac's owned the computer world. Help find information or even the game.
posted by supyo on Oct 28, 2005 - 9 answers

What's the funnest way to destroy about 200 CDs and 100 floppies without explosives? [more inside]
posted by michaelkuznet on Jul 1, 2005 - 26 answers

Is there any way to recycle floppies?
posted by theora55 on Jun 2, 2005 - 9 answers

A few years ago I kept a diary on 3.5 floppies in password- protected word files. I found the floppies at my parent's house this weekend, but of course I don't know the password now. Any way that I can recover the files? I checked google, can't really find anything that makes sense to me.
posted by cilantro on Nov 27, 2004 - 7 answers

I recently got a new Sony Vaio. Its great, except I didn't realize it didn't come with a floppy disk drive. So, what I'm looking for to replace it is a small USB drive (around 64-128 megs). I've seen a bunch online and at stores for sale, but anyone here personaly use them and know what a good brand is? I want one that hooks to a keychain and can take a good amount of abuse (I don't care about extra features like security- my main concern is will it break easily and be around for a good while). Any ideas?
posted by jmd82 on Dec 24, 2003 - 15 answers