Floppy Disk / Diskettes // retrocmp / retro computing

Posted by rbanffy 10/28/2025

Floppy Disk / Diskettes // retrocmp / retro computing(retrocmp.de)

62 points | 19 comments

jmclnx 10/31/2025|

One thing I really miss with flash drives, a write protect switch.

Yes, I can mount 'ro', but many (all?) Linux Desktops mount the drive write through its GUI. I have aliases for mounting and never used the pointy-clicky mount in DEs.

FWIW, I am usually in fvwm or cwm, depending on screen size, so I mount 'ro' when I want to. But a hw switch on flash drives would have been nice :)

mrob 10/31/2025||

With the default ext4 filesystem, mounting 'ro' doesn't actually prevent writes to the disk. For that you need 'noload' too, to prevent journal replay. This can result in a broken filesystem if it wasn't unmounted cleanly, although assuming it's 100% read-only it shouldn't do any permanent damage (perhaps enforce read-only access at the block device level to be sure).

c22 10/31/2025|||

You might like: https://www.kanguru.com/products/kanguru-ss3

torgoguys 10/31/2025||

Using an SD card (or micro SD in an adapter) connected to a USB reader might meet your needs. You can then use the SD write protect switch.

jhallenworld 10/31/2025||

I thing I learned only recently is that the write protect switch on the SD card is not an electrical switch connected to anything in the SD card itself: it just hits a lever in the SD socket that opens a contact closure and it's up to the system (hardware and software both) to bother to look at it. So on many systems the write protect switch doesn't even work.

nticompass 10/31/2025||

As a kid (ok, as an adult too), I knew what the "CH" on floppies meant. I was curious, but never asked or tried looking it up.

I forget when, but one day, it dawned on me that it said "HD"!

I guess most of my floppies had their labels on in such a way that the flap/door was facing down, so it said "CH". To read "HD," then the label would be upside down.

nticompass 11/3/2025|

I just noticed that I said "I knew", when I meant "I never knew". I guess I accidentally a word there.

buildsjets 10/31/2025||

A trivia not touched on in the article - IBM 5 1/4" floppy drives had dual heads and could read the front and back side of a disk without flipping. For cost savings Apple ][ drives had only one head so you had to flip the disk occasionally. But to convert an IBM 5 1/4" floppy for dual sided used on an Apple, you had to cut a second write-protection notch, either with scissors, and xacto-knife, a hole punch, or with a dedicated "drive doubler" puncher.

https://atariprojects.org/2019/06/28/make-floppy-disks-doubl...

wlindley 10/31/2025||

The original IBM PC could be purchased either with 160KB/180KB single-sided floppy drives, or the 320KB/360KB double-sided. Some early IBM PC users still needed the "flippy" trick!

See IBM advert, https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1983-10_OCR/page/n111/mo...

layer8 10/31/2025||

Same for the C64 floppy drive (1541).

ochrist 10/31/2025||

I still have a few floppy disks packed away at the loft, but I wonder if they still work the next time I turn on my BBC or Archimedes.

Tor3 11/1/2025||

My collection of 5 1/4" floppies were mostly fine, after some thirty years. I think I had one or two (of very many) with read errors. 3.5" floppies though.. just about every "HD" (1.44MB) ones were a goner. The "DD" (720kB) fared much better.

snvzz 11/1/2025|||

I'd suggest grabbing a greaseweazle[0] ahead of that.

0. github.com/keirf/greaseweazle/

forinti 10/31/2025||

The last time I checked, the only 5,25" floppies that still worked from that age were the ones in those Acornsoft covers.

terinjokes 11/1/2025||

I recently repaired an Apple II that were stored in a binder in an environment that wasn't climate controlled (for ~35 years). The 5.25" floppies had all developed a layer of stickiness, but all but one read fine once I cleaned up the drives.

ionwake 10/31/2025||

I just feel like tech moved so fast that in SOME ways its sad.

I just wish we could still use retro tech in some way without having to replace it.

therealmarv 10/31/2025||

I only see a 403

orphea 10/31/2025|

https://web.archive.org/web/20251002092405/https://retrocmp....

larodi 11/1/2025|

does anyone anywhere in the world still produce diskettes... if I want to start my very old Apple ][ - what are my options?