5.25" Floppy Drive in a Modern Machine?

[WMH]

As quite a few of you know, I'm probably going to be getting an IBM 5155 pretty soon.

Instead of having to buy disks I want, I'd rather be able to download and burn images from my modern desktop. Blank disks are a little cheaper, if you know what I mean...

Is there any way to hook up a 5.25" drive to a modern machine? (I have two modern desktops, one an older slim Dell Dimension with a 3.5" floppy drive and WinXP and the other a custom build with no floppy drive and Win8.)

Thanks.

 

[commodorejohn]

Depends greatly on the machine. Your Dell may be able to talk to one; the floppy controller should be able to talk to it, but PC BIOSes started dropping 5.25" as an option in the XP era - even if the BIOS and Windows won't talk to it, there may be custom utility programs that access the controller directly that can. Otherwise, Kyroflux might be a good option.

Personally, what I'd do if your Dimension won't work is go to the recycle center or check Craigslist for a mid-period PC - old enough to have full floppy support, new enough to run XP and have USB 2.0 - and just make that your dedicated "transfer" machine. It's what I do.

 

[WMH]

Depends greatly on the machine. Your Dell may be able to talk to one; the floppy controller should be able to talk to it, but PC BIOSes started dropping 5.25" as an option in the XP era - even if the BIOS and Windows won't talk to it, there may be custom utility programs that access the controller directly that can. Otherwise, Kyroflux might be a good option.

Personally, what I'd do if your Dimension won't work is go to the recycle center or check Craigslist for a mid-period PC - old enough to have full floppy support, new enough to run XP and have USB 2.0 - and just make that your dedicated "transfer" machine. It's what I do.

So I might be able to pull the 5.25" out of a 5155 and interface it directly with my Dell? Could that blow out the drive?

 

[Stone]

So I might be able to pull the 5.25" out of a 5155 and interface it directly with my Dell? Could that blow out the drive?

If it can run a 3.5" floppy it shouldn't 'blow out' a 5.25" floppy. The question is whether the Bios will support it. So, go ahead and try it. In any case what you really need is a 'tweener'. In fact, nobody here should really be without one.

 

[sergey]

Most modern machines don't even have floppy drive controller.
If yours does - it should be working with 5.25" drives, at least from hardware side (well, there is a difference in termination resistors, but usually it is not a problem).
BIOS support - not sure, I don't think Windows XP or later use BIOS to access the floppy, perhaps they use CMOS configuration to detect floppy drive types. It might be possible to hack that, or in a worst case configure it as 3.5" 1.44 MB drive...

Other options:
- add a 3.5" drive to your 5155... (use it as 720 KB drive)
- use network or serial connection to transfer data to 5155.

 

[commodorejohn]

So I might be able to pull the 5.25" out of a 5155 and interface it directly with my Dell? Could that blow out the drive?

It shouldn't damage anything, but pulling the drive directly out of the 5155 is a sub-optimal solution as it's a full-height drive and may not fit comfortably into half-height bays. You'd probably be better off getting a half-height 5.25" drive (I have some spares, if you can't find one at your local recycle center.) Also, you'll likely need an adapter or a cable with a card-edge connector, since few 5.25" drives seem to have the modern-style header connector.

 

[WMH]

Thanks for the help guys! I think I've got a spare 5.25" drive around here somewhere. I'll hook it up to my Dell later on and post back with the results.