Have a Compaq Portable I, but I have a few questions about the 5.25" floppies... - Hardware & Software

I recently acquired a 1982 [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Portable"]Compaq Portable I[/URL] that works, but I don't have any boot diskettes for it. I found a website that sells 5.25" floppies, but I can't find out which kind this computer can use. There's apparently "High Density" types and "Low Density" types: [URL="http://floppydisk.com/"] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/t6wGu.png[/IMG] [/URL] Which type can I use? I want to burn MS-DOS 5.0 to it and boot off of it. The second question, is how can I burn to the floppy? Here's a [URL="http://floppydisk.com/internal.htm"]Panasonic JU-475 Internal 5.25 Floppy Drive[/URL] for $40. Will that be able to burn to the kind of 5.25" floppy I need? Also, would I be able to connect it to my desktop using [URL="http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0249962"]this IDE->USB cable[/URL]? Here is the back view of the Panasonic JU-475 Internal 5.25 Floppy Drive: [URL="http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/dta/26590/"] [IMG]http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/dta/26590/00000003.gif[/IMG] [/URL] Thanks for the help, guys! [editline]26th July 2011[/editline]

Get IDE to SATA instead, some good cheap two-way converters available

[QUOTE=Darkimmortal;31336344]Get IDE to SATA instead, some good cheap two-way converters available[/QUOTE] Why not USB? USB would be far more convenient for me, because with IDA to SATA I'd have to crack open my desktop to access the SATA ports.

[QUOTE=dag10;31336364]Why not USB? USB would be far more convenient for me, because with IDA to SATA I'd have to crack open my desktop to access the SATA ports.[/QUOTE] Figured you were doing so anyway as it's an internal drive

Haha, "burn a floppy" that's a new one. Floppies are "written" to, they don't have lasers like optical drives, you don't "burn" them. There are more types of 5.25" floppies than just high and low density. The most commonly made formats that still have stock left after all these years are Double Density (360 kB), Quad Density (720 kB) and High Density (1.2 MB). I have two huge boxes of them in the closet, and two 5.25" drives myself. And 5.25" drives don't use the IDE bus, they use their own floppy bus with different signalling. Unless you have a floppy controller on your motherboard (most all manufacturers have dropped the floppy connector on the motherboard starting with the AM3 socket and LGA1155, though I have seen one LGA1155 board with a floppy port ironically.) There are also no addon cards that have floppy connectors on them, bar 25 year old I/O boards on the ISA bus, which you can't use anyway.

[QUOTE=bohb;31338741]Haha, "burn a floppy" that's a new one. Floppies are "written" to, they don't have lasers like optical drives, you don't "burn" them. There are more types of 5.25" floppies than just high and low density. The most commonly made formats that still have stock left after all these years are Double Density (360 kB), Quad Density (720 kB) and High Density (1.2 MB). I have two huge boxes of them in the closet, and two 5.25" drives myself. And 5.25" drives don't use the IDE bus, they use their own floppy bus with different signalling. Unless you have a floppy controller on your motherboard (most all manufacturers have dropped the floppy connector on the motherboard starting with the AM3 socket and LGA1155, though I have seen one LGA1155 board with a floppy port ironically.) There are also no addon cards that have floppy connectors on them, bar 25 year old I/O boards on the ISA bus, which you can't use anyway.[/QUOTE] Alright. Do you have any ideas on how I can go about what I want to do? I want to get 5.25" floppies that are compatible with the Compaq Portable, and be able to write to them from any modern computer so that I can create MS-DOS boot diskettes.

The JU-475 can use high density disks, but it looks like the Compaq is a low density drive. I'd say to try both, but you're being ripped off for those disks. Edit: You might be able to do it by tearing apart a 3½ USB drive, and seeing if the connectors can be used (Might be hardwired, or not)

[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;31339334]The JU-475 can use high density disks, but it looks like the Compaq is a low density drive. I'd say to try both, but you're being ripped off for those disks. Edit: You might be able to do it by tearing apart a 3½ USB drive, and seeing if the connectors can be used (Might be hardwired, or not)[/QUOTE] I'm being ripped off for those disks? Do you have any other source that's cheaper? Also, that's a good idea for the 3.5" USB drive. I have one of those laying around actually :D

Well, maybe I'm just remembering how much they used to cost. I got a pack of 50 sitting somewhere that I got for $5 (Back when my C64 worked and my PC still had floppy drives) [url]http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-ATHANA-Floppy-Disk-DS-DD-5-25-10-Count-Sealed-5-1-4-/260823841091?pt=BI_Blank_Media&hash=item3cba4ff943[/url] There's 10 for $11, but they're high density though. There seems to be similar prices on eBay (25 for $27, etc.)

There's no demand for them, which means anyone buying them really, really needs them, which drives the price up. Welcome to the free market.

Actually, I don't know why I responded. I remember the good old days of having these floppies. Come on oregon trail!

[QUOTE=Squad;31340387]There is no demand, so the price would be cheaper. They are obsolete technology, meaning there aren't companies producing them like mad anymore, meaning they cost a lot. The demand for them is low as a result of them being obsolete, they aren't expensive because there is no demand for them.[/QUOTE] Most of what is being sold is way, way old stock. I don't know a single company that still produces them, but I haven't really looked. Hell, even Sony stopped producing VHS like years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if nobody was still manufacturing these.

I still have a whole cabinet full of these :buddy: Buy LD ones, they tend to have much better compatibility than HD ones, unless you are sure that your drive can handle them.

The Portable I originally sold with DS-DD drives but actually, $50 for 50 disks is spot on for price. When we get them we sell ten packs for $10. I have had a lot of trouble though writing images from DS-HD drives to DS-DD media. As seen before in another thread I had to scavenge an older DS-DD drive before I could create disks for an Osborne.

[QUOTE=dag10;31339056]Alright. Do you have any ideas on how I can go about what I want to do? I want to get 5.25" floppies that are compatible with the Compaq Portable, and be able to write to them from any modern computer so that I can create MS-DOS boot diskettes.[/QUOTE] If the 5.25" drive in the Compaq only supports 360 kB disks, you can buy the cheaper 1.2 MB disks and format them to 360 kB in DOS. Swapping drives isn't an option because the hardware doesn't support the higher density drives. A better source for 5.25" floppies are thrift stores, I usually see boxes of them for like $5 or less occasionally. [editline]26th July 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=nikomo;31340411]Most of what is being sold is way, way old stock. I don't know a single company that still produces them, but I haven't really looked. Hell, even Sony stopped producing VHS like years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if nobody was still manufacturing these.[/QUOTE] Wofat still makes VHS tapes, the HEB Plus supermarket near me has a huge bin of them new for $1 each.

From [URL="http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html"]this page[/URL] I found out that the Compaq Portable uses 320K floppies. So does Double-Density work with it? Might High-Density work?

That's a typo, the drives are 360 kB. Due to the complex nature of floppy formats, I can't guarantee any of the mixing and matching will work, you'll just have to experiment.

You CAN format 1.2mb DS-HD floppies to be 360k DS-DD but it's very unreliable.