I'm a packrat

[jdhurst]

I am a packrat (and I am mostly likely not alone). I have the luxury of a rack of shelving in my basement that holds about 3 dozen 1.5 cubic foot moving boxes.

You have no idea how easy it is to stuff one of those full with things "I still want", tape it shut, store it and forget about it.

Today begins cleanout time as I clear out a 14 by 8 foot space in the basement for a model railroad. One of the boxes above has one or two locomotives and rail cars from 40 years ago.

One of the boxes is full of 5.25 inch diskettes. It is all DOS, and the only real item of interest in the box is source code for a DOS telecommunications program I wrote some years ago, and that source code (the latest version from 1987) is safely on both hard drive of my current machines.

So, is there any such thing as a USB-connected 5.25 inch diskette drive? And, anyway, it seems daft to even keep the stuff.

Bonus: Remember the Calculator discussion? I found my HP-41C calculator. Safely stored with no batteries in it. Even so, that is for another time.

... JDH

[tomh009]

I don't think USB 5.25" drives exist. If you don't have a desktop system (which could accept a conventional floppy drive), I think your only option is to have someone copy the floppies for you. How many do you have that you need to copy?

Mmmmm ... HP-41. Mine is still on my desk at the office, and gets daily use.

P.S. What type of model railroad?

[tfflivemb2]

I wouldn't try too hard to track one down....about 6 months ago, was playing with a few of my OLD PCs that had the 5.25in diskettes. I was going to see if linux would run on them (which I got sidetracked and never finished by the way). Anyway, I tried some of my old diskettes....NOT ONE worked, and I tried 3 different machines. I am also starting to have the same problem with some of my old regular floppies from just after this same time period, that had DOS on them. I really thought that these disks would survive, but I guess not.

[pianowizard]

How about a parallel port floppy drive? I've heard of parallel port CD drives.

[jdhurst]

I wouldn't try too hard to track one down....<snip> I really thought that these disks would survive, but I guess not.

That is one of my thoughts as well. I once had a Windows 3.1/Windows 95 IBM desktop that had a hard drive, a 3.5 inch floppy, a 5.25 inch floppy and an add-on PCMCIA adapter. I foresaw the day when a 5.25 inch floppy would be extinct and anything that was genuinely important then is now on my current hard drives.

I'll look a wee bit longer, but the 1.5 cubic foot box of floppies is destined for the dump, whether I find a drive or not.
... JDH

[AlphaKilo470]

Have you tried looking for something at Goodwill or another local thrift shop? Thrift stores are often havens for old technology. However, they are normally unhealthy places for packrats.

HP makes the best calculators. I used to have to HP 48Gs until I managed to win a busted up 48GX on eBay (it still had a good motherboard) so I butchered the worse condition 48G and used the parts to repair the 48GX. I really like the design of the 48 series that cals for no screws. However, I really dislike their use of plastic rivets and glue on the faceplate and front panel.

[Tholek]

An interesting quandry...

The drive is big enough that it would be perfect in an external optical drive enclosure, but it doesn't have a pata connector. Plus if you did find some kind of 3.5" USB floppy enclosure that could accommodate a desktop drive (never seen one), it couldn't fit the 5.25"er.

They never made 5.25" diskette drives that could be used on a pata controller, did they? That would be the only solution I could think of.

Incidentally, I never knew until recently that a combined 3.5"/5.25" drive that took up one drive bay had existed until I pulled one from a trashed PC. Looks old since it uses the edge card connector (only have a few of those cables around), but it sure is a space saver if you still want a 5.25"er in a desktop.

[rkawakami]

I have a couple of 286-powered AST computers at work with 5.25" floppy drives. Might even be able to dig up low and high density drives. I think they still work and they should also have 3.5" floppy drives in them as well. If you still want to try and copy off those ancient diskettes, let me know and I'll dust off the cobwebs and see if the ASTs still work.

[jdhurst]

The 5.25 inch diskettes are gone. So also are eight 1.5 cubic foot boxes of files, papers, old books and stuff.

I found a surprising number of old documents on my F: drive (text, AmiPro, Word) that remain accessible if I really need something.

Now I have room for a 16 x 8 foot train table and file space for newer books and papers.

... JDH

[tfflivemb2]

When you say gone....do you mean no good? or tossed out?

[jdhurst]

When you say gone....do you mean no good? or tossed out?

Tossed out. ... JDH

[syedj]

Have you tried looking for something at Goodwill or another local thrift shop? Thrift stores are often havens for old technology. However, they are normally unhealthy places for packrats.

HP makes the best calculators. I used to have to HP 48Gs until I managed to win a busted up 48GX on eBay (it still had a good motherboard) so I butchered the worse condition 48G and used the parts to repair the 48GX. I really like the design of the 48 series that cals for no screws. However, I really dislike their use of plastic rivets and glue on the faceplate and front panel.

Ah! Your mention of HP 48G brought back many many old memories. I have a HP 48G (circa 1992) as well, still in mint condition with no scratches - or at least that I can remember at the moment. It served me well in school and I still occasionally use it occasionally. Although whoever borrowed it from returned back within a few seconds of trying to use it Not to many people can handle RPN.

Did you know there is a software simulator for it as well that uses original ROM dump of the HP 48G? I use it almost on a daily basis as my calculator on all Windows machines that I have. It works 100% like the physical calculator itself.

Unfortunately, HP have lost their Midas touch with calculators now.

[furrycute]

Anyone has a TI-82 lying around somewhere? I think I still have mine wrapped up in a plastic bag somewhere.

[tomh009]

Did you know there is a software simulator for it as well that uses original ROM dump of the HP 48G? I use it almost on a daily basis as my calculator on all Windows machines that I have. It works 100% like the physical calculator itself.

I have the 41CX emulator (by Warren Furlow) which is very nice -- no more Windows Calculator! Which one of the many 48G emulators are you using?

[syedj]

I have the 41CX emulator (by Warren Furlow) which is very nice -- no more Windows Calculator! Which one of the many 48G emulators are you using?

I use Emu48 emulator version 1.32 by Sebastian Carlier and Christoph Giebelink. The GPL source code is available, although I must admit I haven't tried compiling it myself. There are several KML scripts available - think of them as skins for the emulator. I use "Eric's Real 48GX for 800x600" script which looks 100% like the real calculator. This emulator works like a champ under Wine, so even while using Linux one can still use it.

Take a look at the following site:

http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/

I can't recall the last time I used Windows default calculator either.