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What sort of floppy drive should I get?

Following advice on another group, I purchased an Imation USB floppy drive. I never could get it to work on my G4, even after upgrading with additional ports and memory. The G4 barely recognizes a Memory card reader, but after several tries that at least turns on and works. The floppy drive, the light won't even light up. I think any more devices I may get need to have their own power source because they seem to be maxing out the Mac.

What I need to do is transfer old data on floppy disks which was made on a Mac enhanced. What sort of drive is recommended for this? Thanks.

Power Mac G4, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Hard Drive 500 GB, External Backup 500 GB, Video HD 60 GB

Posted on Jan 4, 2011 10:46 AM

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Posted on Jan 4, 2011 11:00 AM

Thoughts:

Friend with a different computer?

Any way to get the USB drive on external power? Powered external hub?

May sound silly but you can get a low end G3 for free or next to nothing. Have a session getting all your stuff off the floppies then pass it on.
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Jan 4, 2011 11:00 AM in response to Cornelia Shields

Thoughts:

Friend with a different computer?

Any way to get the USB drive on external power? Powered external hub?

May sound silly but you can get a low end G3 for free or next to nothing. Have a session getting all your stuff off the floppies then pass it on.
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Jan 5, 2011 1:01 AM in response to BDAqua

Some may be 400K disks but I think most are 800K DS/DD disks. The Mac Enhanced would not take DS/HD disks, it had to be the earlier style.

I have a Macintosh/SE 30 but there's two problems with it. For one, unless there's software installed on the hard drive which still works, I have no software. I was using Microsoft Word 4.0 on a floppy disk and it's gone bad on me, so I can't even open my documents on the Mac Enhanced. Also, I might get files converted to a higher version of Word, assuming there's software on the SE, that Microsoft Word is included, and that everything still works, but I'd still need the data in some form to put on the G4, which takes only CD/DVD disks, not floppies. But yes, a powered hub might be a good idea rather than just starting over with a new floppy drive when I never even used that one so it should be fine if I could get it to turn on. Thanks.
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Jan 5, 2011 10:12 AM in response to Cornelia Shields

The Imation drive, when working properly, can read/write 1.4MB HD floppies. As for 2DD floppies, it can only read and write IBM 720K format, not Mac 800K format.

Only a platinum/beige Mac can read/write Mac 800K format.

Only a platinum/beige Mac running Mac OS older than OS 8.0 can read 400K format. That capability was removed in OS 8 in a re-write to accommodate Mac OS Extended format, which became fully functional in 8.1.
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Jan 6, 2011 4:52 PM in response to romko23

DS/DD is 720K for 3.5 inch floppies


That is correct if you use a fixed-speed motor. The original Apple 3.5 drives used a variable-speed motor to cram 400K onto one side of the same 2DD or DS/DD diskette. Later drives used two heads to get 800K on those diskettes. No other manufacturer copied that design (originally made by Sony) so the only way to read 800K Mac formatted diskettes is with a platinum/beige Mac.

When HD diskettes came along, there was no advantage to using variable-speed, so the capacity is the same 1.4MB for Mac and MS-DOS.
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Jan 6, 2011 9:24 PM in response to BDAqua

Kewl. Now all I gotta do is figure out whether my USB floppy drive is maybe fine but draws too much power or something for my Mac G4 to handle. Here is the information on the floppy disk drive:

Model: D353FUE
Interface: USB revision 1.1, connector version B
Data capacity: 1.4 MB Mac format, 720 kb or 1.44 MB PC format
USB transfer rate: 12Mbits/sec
Drive transfer rate: 500 Kbits/sec
Power requirements: 5VDC/-5% @ 500mA
Reliability (MTBF): 30,000 hours

I can send information on the computer if you let me know what is needed and where to look. Thanks.
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Jan 6, 2011 10:57 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

Macs are Anemic for USB power, get an AC Powered USB Hub to cure the problem...

http://www.buy.com/prod/high-speed-usb-2-0-7-port-hub-powered-ac-adapter-blue/q/ sellerid/23962916/loc/101/213271959.html

Though one or more of your USB devices may be defective.

To get the important info about your Mac,you only have 500mA to hand out to start with...

At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac, then click on More Info, then click on Hardware> and report this upto *but not including the Serial#*...

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: eMac
Model Identifier: PowerMac6,4
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
Processor Speed: 1.42 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 1
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.9.2f1

Then in the same place check the USB section...

USB Bus:

Host Controller Location: Built In USB
Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBOHCI
PCI Device ID: 0x0035
PCI Revision ID: 0x0043
PCI Vendor ID: 0x1033
Bus Number: 0x1b

Apple Optical USB Mouse:

Product ID: 0x0307
Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Inc.)
Version: 3.40
Speed: Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Logitech
Location ID: 0x1b200000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 100

Hub in Apple Pro Keyboard:

Product ID: 0x1002
Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Inc.)
Version: 1.00
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Mitsumi Electric
Location ID: 0x1b100000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 50

USB2.0 Hub:

Product ID: 0x0608
Vendor ID: 0x05e3 (Genesys Logic, Inc.)
Version: 7.02
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Location ID: 0x1b130000
Current Available (mA): 100
Current Required (mA): 100

USB2.0 Hub:

Product ID: 0x0608
Vendor ID: 0x05e3 (Genesys Logic, Inc.)
Version: 7.02
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Location ID: 0x1b134000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 100

802.11 bg WLAN:

Product ID: 0x1723
Vendor ID: 0x0b05 (ASUSTek Computer Inc.)
Version: 0.01
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Ralink
Location ID: 0x1b134100
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 300

USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge:

Product ID: 0x2338
Vendor ID: 0x152d (JMicron Technology Corp.)
Version: 1.00
Serial Number: 152D203380B6
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: JMicron
Location ID: 0x1b134300
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 2

Apple Pro Keyboard:

Product ID: 0x0204
Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Inc.)
Version: 1.01
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Mitsumi Electric
Location ID: 0x1b110000
Current Available (mA): 250
Current Required (mA): 50
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Jan 7, 2011 9:05 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi again,

The reason I asked is because I am using a TI-99/4A vintage computer(it was my 1st computer and still runs to this day, knock on wood!) and 3.5 inch floppies are supported, but I get like 2880 sectors formatted with it.. 2880 sectors is 720K.. would an Apple disk work?
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Jan 7, 2011 10:24 AM in response to romko23

The diskettes themselves are identical. They get 720K in MS-DOS format, or 800K in Mac format. They are soft-formatted, so you can use the same diskette 2D 2DD DS/DD in either drive.

The DATA will not interchange, unless you use a Mac from before OS 8 to write the diskette in MS-DOS format (which it can do). Then the Mac or tthe other machine can read it.
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What sort of floppy drive should I get?

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