Thinkpads Forum

My ThinkPad 750Cs came with a floppy disk for reading Extended Density (ED) 2.88MB floppy disks. That laptop retired/died peacefully many years ago. Recently I came across a stash of ED floppy disks that may (or may not) have some interesting material stored on them. But how do I read them today? My 750Cs will no longer boot up.

Is there USB external floppy disk reader with a usb connector that might be able to read these disks for me? I did some searches, but have not found anything like that so far.

Might there be a way to remove the internal 2.88 floppy drive that came with my 750Cs and connect it somehow to a desktop or laptop? It looks like it that floppy drive has a 50 pin connector. It's IBM 66G3770 2.88 NOTEBOOK FLOPPY DRIVE (66G5060, 66G0006)

Thanks!
FRANK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Extend ... ity_Format

Not sure if this is true (Wiki sources being what they are), but that article says you need to connect the drive directly to a compatible floppy disk controller, not via USB. Also not sure if there is a way to adapt the 50 pin interface. Here's one page that may help (assuming the 50 pin connector follows the 8" floppy format):

http://home.claranet.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/8-525.html

rkawakami wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Extend ... ity_Format

Not sure if this is true (Wiki sources being what they are), but that article says you need to connect the drive directly to a compatible floppy disk controller, not via USB. Also not sure if there is a way to adapt the 50 pin interface. Here's one page that may help (assuming the 50 pin connector follows the 8" floppy format):

http://home.claranet.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/8-525.html

Thanks for the quick response.

I think that I may have mus-labeled the format structure in my title. I think that I should have called it ED (extra high-density) rather than Extended Density which that article refers to as XDF (Extended_Density_Format). The article says that XDF 3½-inch floppies could hold 1860 KB. These ED floppies that I have hold 2880 KB.

If there is no "easy fix" then it may be easier/cheaper for me to purchase/install an internal 2.88 floppy drive, which do seem to be available. But will they work with Windows 7?

Ah, sorry, my mistake. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fl ... sk_formats

Given that Windows XP only supports floppies as large as 1.44MB, I doubt that W7 would add something that obsolete. I opened a DOS session in W7 and entered a "format /?" command. "/F:size" is the relevant parameter. I attached a USB floppy drive (IBM 06P5223), entered a "format a: /F:2.88" command and received a "Parameters not support by drive", which is no surprise as I know this is not an Extra High density drive.

If you can't find a suitable drive and/or operating system to support that drive, then one suggestion (it's expensive) would be to contact a data recovery/transfer service and see if they are still able to read this format. It's probably cheaper to locate an eBay auction for a working 750/755 or 360CSE/CE, 360PE or 370C system and just put DOS on it.

ref: http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/309623 (could not find the Microsoft page relating to Windows 7 on this topic)

Sorry if I missed that someone already wrote. Just noting the 360 came with 1.44 FDD, but the 2.88 works in it.