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How can I retrieve data from 3.5 floppies, double-sided and double density? I have tried Sabrent and Dell external drives, but they only handle 144k floppies. Is there a drive that can read the 720k or 800k floppies, DS/DD?
This is the hardware that I know of for use with 800K floppy drives. I'm from the Amiga era and have read good things about this device. You may have to pickup a cheap floppy and cable from e-bay, unless you still have one. Start here with these guys:
Cheers!!
Many internal PC and external USB floppy drives can handle 720K PC-formatted DSDD diskettes. However, the 800K Macintosh format (also on DSDD diskettes) needs a special floppy drive with a variable speed.
So, for the 800K Mac format, look for an approx. 1992-1997 Macintosh computer with a built-in floppy drive for both 800K and 1.44 MB, preferably with an Ethernet port. You could then copy the contents to 1.44 MB HD diskettes, or transfer files to other computers via a network.
Jan's right, no USB-connected floppy drive can handle the 800k variable-speed recording method. You might also explore services to do the work for you if you don't want to invest in old "bridge" Mac hardware - google 'mac floppy disk conversion' (without the quotes).
You may also want to check whether there is an Apple User Group in your area.
http://www.apple.com/usergroups/
If you are interested in older Macintosh equipment, technical details can be found, for example, at lowendmac.com .
DS/DD 3.5 floppy retrieval
