Need data off old 2.0 MB floppy disk, can't access

[monkeylady]

Hi all, I'm new to these forums, and I'm not sure I'm posting in the right place, but hopefully someone here can help me. I have 2 old floppy disks I've held onto for probably 8 years in hopes that someday I could get the data off of them, which has sentimental value. Every PC floppy drive I've put them in tries to read them, then says "This disk is not formatted, would you like to format it now?". I know these disks have data on them. My question is, is my situation hopeless for getting this data recovered? A local technology shop guy said the problem isn't corrupted data, it's that the floppies are 2.0 MB High Density Imation 3M disks, instead of the standard 1.44 MB disks, and almost every floppy drive around can only read 1.44 MB disks. Does that sound right? He said these 2.0 MB disks came out just before CDs, and they didn't last long because CDs made them obsolete. Anyone know of anywhere online I can send the disks to get the data off, that wouldn't charge me much if the data isn't recoverable? I figured the data was corrupted on them and all hope was lost, but the tech guy's comments made me think that maybe I just need to find the right floppy drive.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Harvey]

2 MB floppy??? Do you mean a 1.44 MB disk? There were a few 2.88 MB disks, but I've never seen a drive for them.

 

[neutralizer]

No, 2 Mb floppies exist

see

i'd take it to a specialist or something and ask them where you can find anyone with floppy disk drive that can read it. otherwise, check out local scrap computer parts that might have an old enough floppy disk drive.

 

[boomerang]

Looks like the drives still exist.

I'd call the vendor first though. I just put 2MB Floppy Drive in Google. More hits await.

 

[SilentRunning]

Unless these are in fact some rare breed of floppy disks, 2.0 MB floppy disks and 1.44 MB floppy disks are the same thing.

2.0 MB is the unformatted size of 1.44 MB floppies and many manufacturers sold them under their unformatted size rather than their formatted size.

 

[shabby]

What aboot the 1.7mb floppy's that win95 came on? They were formatted and held 1.7megs rather then 1.4megs.

 

[russell2002]

Remember Acorn/Risc Pc's at schools so many years ago.

The last generation of half PC half risc technology has 2mb formatting ability. I have some old art projects from 1995 on such disks but have never been able to extract it on a normal pc.

I believe they were 1.44mb disks. So assume the disk was formatted for compression in some risc specific format but not sure on that bit.

 

[Washoe]

I don't know of any place "that wouldn't charge much" - I'm not sure how likely you can get this done; the price could be fairly high though.

Imation Diskette Storage FAQs

Why will a 2MB diskette only hold 1.44MB of data?

There is some confusion related to storage capacity on 2MB floppy diskettes.

Out of the box, a blank (unformatted) diskette has a capacity of 2MB. However, when you format the disk, you use some of that space to create a FAT (File Allocation Table) on the diskette. This is the area that is reserved to store file names and also to store information about where on the diskette the information is stored. Without the FAT, you would not be able to retrieve your saved data!

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: shabby
What aboot the 1.7mb floppy's that win95 came on? They were formatted and held 1.7megs rather then 1.4megs.

Saw the aboot and immediately thought...Oh, a Canadian

Back to the topic. I found a site which said if a 1.44MB HD floppy was formatted in a 720KB double density drive that it would be unreadable in 1.44MB drives. They would expect a high density disk and instead would be getting a double density disk. Might be the issue you are having.

It said that in some cases covering the extra hole that the 1.44MB floppy has would allow it to be recognized as a 720KB disk. Could be worth a try.

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, You might have the 2.88 disks that one of the responders suggested. It was not the floppy. Any 1.44 floppy can do the trick. MS invented this nonsense to get more data on std 1.44 floppies before CDs got going. Search the internet for info on 2.88 floppy and required software to read and write them. Luck, Jim