April 24th, 2012

I thought I was so clever, salvaging an old floppy drive from a dead computer, but I didn't think *two* steps ahead…

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

When one of the oldest computers at Microsoft still doing useful work finally died, I had the presence of mind to salvage the 5¼″ floppy drive from the machine, so that I could (someday) extract the data off all the old 5¼″ floppy discs I have packed away in boxes meaning to convert someday. (Mind you, the data capacity of a giant box of 5&frac14″ floppy disks is approximately equal to half of a CD.) Oh, and by the way, if you know what a floppy drive is, then this question on superuser.com will make you feel old. I thought I was so clever, salvaging an old floppy drive from a dead computer so I could use it to rescue data from obsolescence, but that was only thinking one step ahead. I failed to think two steps ahead: Nobody makes motherboards with 5¼″ floppy drive connectors!

Bonus coincidental posting date: The Geeks Who Saved Prince of Persia‘s Source Code From Digital Death.

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Old New Thing
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Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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