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I have an Apple IIc but I have a hard time finding 5 1/4s for it. The ones I do find seem like they almost never work, maybe because of age. I'm not sure. If a

I have an Apple IIc but I have a hard time finding 5 1/4s for it. The ones I do find seem like they almost never work, maybe because of age. I'm not sure. If anyone that's into this type of retro computing has any tips for getting reliable IO/disks with these old machines I would appreciate it.

krallja 4y ago
https://www.floppydisk.com/5point25 https://www.floppydisk.com/5point25 is, as far as I can tell, the only reliable seller of floppy disks left on the planet.
sbf501 4y ago
Here is what I purchased: https://retrofloppy.com/products/#BlankDisks https://retrofloppy.com/products/#BlankDisks They seem to be working fine. I used 5 out of 20 so far.
toast0 4y ago
One thing to be aware of is high density floppies are unlikely to work. You've got to make sure you get double density (aka low density, but I guess there was some abandoned standard that was lower than double). I've got a bunch pulled from that one time my dad broke our Tandy 1000 TL/2's floppy port and the 3.5" ds/dd drive stopped working, but we still had the 5.25" ds/dd drive running, and a lucky find at WeirdStuff. But I've got the problem that even though the disks are double sided, I can't use the backsides because I don't have a notcher and I'm not using scissors. :( Also, something happened to my monitor recently, and now it only blows fuses and doesn't display things anymore :(( If you're in the Seattle area, email me (on profile) and I can give you some disks, but I'm not gonna mail them.
StillBored 4y ago
There are various modern disk interfaces that can be plugged in as alternatives. BMOW, also has a floppy emulator you plug into the floppy controller which emulates the drive+disk using SD cards. https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/ https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/ I have a fairly old CFFA https://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php https://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFfor... as well, its a pretty solid HD emulator as well. There shouldn't be a problem using older floppy disks if you can get ones that actually are for apple ][s and C64's rather than the later higher density ones used by PCs/etc.

krallja 4y ago

https://www.floppydisk.com/5point25 https://www.floppydisk.com/5point25 is, as far as I can tell, the only reliable seller of floppy disks left on the planet.

sbf501 4y ago

Here is what I purchased: https://retrofloppy.com/products/#BlankDisks https://retrofloppy.com/products/#BlankDisks They seem to be working fine. I used 5 out of 20 so far.

toast0 4y ago

One thing to be aware of is high density floppies are unlikely to work. You've got to make sure you get double density (aka low density, but I guess there was some abandoned standard that was lower than double). I've got a bunch pulled from that one time my dad broke our Tandy 1000 TL/2's floppy port and the 3.5" ds/dd drive stopped working, but we still had the 5.25" ds/dd drive running, and a lucky find at WeirdStuff. But I've got the problem that even though the disks are double sided, I can't use the backsides because I don't have a notcher and I'm not using scissors. :( Also, something happened to my monitor recently, and now it only blows fuses and doesn't display things anymore :(( If you're in the Seattle area, email me (on profile) and I can give you some disks, but I'm not gonna mail them.

StillBored 4y ago

There are various modern disk interfaces that can be plugged in as alternatives. BMOW, also has a floppy emulator you plug into the floppy controller which emulates the drive+disk using SD cards. https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/ https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/ I have a fairly old CFFA https://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php https://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFfor... as well, its a pretty solid HD emulator as well. There shouldn't be a problem using older floppy disks if you can get ones that actually are for apple ][s and C64's rather than the later higher density ones used by PCs/etc.