Q: Need to open an older disk, but have no drive for it

Hi, Tony -

That's a pretty common question as the generations of Macintoshes have marched onward.  Here's a discussion that goes into the hows-and-whys, as well as various solutions available:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/10450084

Tony,

The number one idea is to find a user group. Look here:

http://www.apple.com/usergroups/find/

If you are near the pacific northwest, there are options in every big city. 

Post back with the name of a large city near you for more ideas.

Here is a site that will guide you through the different drives Apple made.

http://www.vintagemacworld.com/drives.html

One other note.  The discussion suggested above comments on how a newer disk drive will not read an 800k disk because it was not variable speed.  Someone will correct me if I am wrong but I do not recall ever having to use an 800 external floppy drive to read disks created in the Plus.  We started with a Plus and then purchased an SE with dual floppies.  It had the FDHD floppy drives.

OK, I just read the site I referred to above.  Here is the quote:

"Apple FDHD External (G7287)"

"The FDHD External uses a similar case to the 3.5"         External but the 800K mechanism has been upgraded to a 1.4M         mechanism. With appropriate software, it is capable of         reading PC format disks in both the Mac and Apple IIgs."

"It was designed for use with Macs with an FDHD disk         controller (eg SE FDHD, SE/30, IIx, IIci). If used with a         Mac that doesn't have an FDHD controller, it will operate as         an 800K drive. It should not be used with the Mac 128K or         512K."

So, if you can find an FDHD external floppy and one of the listed computers, namely SE, SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, etc. then it will also be backward compatible with the 800k floppy disks.  We had both an SE and a Plus and we never paid any attention to whether a disk was 800 or 1.4 high density when using the SE.  The Plus was another story.  It obviously could not read the newer disks.

Bottom line is that you need to find an older machine but your list of Macs capable of reading an 800k disk is much broader than some have indicated.  This is the file transfer path we use:

So, from an Apple IIe to a IIc unidisk to a Quadra 700 to an external SCSI zip drive to a G3 to a zip drive in a Blue and White G3 with USB on board or an external USB zip to a current machine.  That is thirty years of file transfer capability.  Just a few steps inbetween.  Each generation had its comfort zone for seamless file transfers.

Find a user group and someone will have all those machines and still use them.  Good luck.

Jim~

Tony,

You may want to check this url out as it offers an easy solution.

http://www.oakbog.com/vintage.html