You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

DS/DD 3.5 floppy retrieval

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?

Posted on Jul 17, 2016 12:42 PM

Reply
4 replies

Jul 17, 2016 4:46 PM in response to Don1965

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.

DS/DD 3.5 floppy retrieval

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.