Preserving a floppy disk with a logic analyzer and a serial cable

chzsoft.de

95 points·fm77··6 comments

There's a lot of interesting Greaseweazle-y floppy development being done at Adafruit right now. Some days they're posting multiple videos a day showing progress updates.

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Floppy

(here are some representative posts)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQvzZKNvRM0

https://blog.adafruit.com/2022/01/16/5-25-floppy-reading-wit...

John Morris's Applesauce floppy disk controller hardware and software project continues to add functionality.

https://applesaucefdc.com/what-is-applesauce/

There was a nice talk from VCF West last year on signal analysis and filtering (focusing more on the analog realm than this article) to recover data from damaged floppies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgH6ov33ieg

I have a bunch of 3.5" floppy disks from my BBC Master, which date back to late early 90s. Will the data on them still be ok?

If I bought a Kryoflux or similar device would I be able to access and save the data?

Maybe, depending on how they were stored. I haven't done an extensive amount of recovery but my Apple II disks from the late 80s, stored in a basement with little temperature fluctuation, ready-out fine in the mid 2010s.

I would encourage you to look at the Greaseweazel[0] in lieu of the Kryoflux. The Kryoflux has an onerous license that only permits personal use. The Greaseweazel has a comparable feature set and doesn't limit user freedom.

[0] https://github.com/keirf/greaseweazle

Thanks for the detailed reply! The Greaseweazle looks good and is inexpensive. I think I’ll get one. :)

I never tire of being nostalgic about floppy discs. So many good memories.

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