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Retrieving Data From Old Amstrad Floppies?
Jeppe Utzon writes "Back in 1987, when I was a teenager in high school still, I spent most evenings, nights and weekends writing small programs in BASIC on my Amstrad CPC 6128. Some of these programs were simple games, some drew graphics, some could help me with math or train me in French — and most were utterly pointless. But I never had as much satisfying fun as when writing those programs — even if no one in my family understood any of it when I proudly displayed the fruits of three sleepless nights of labor. Now, 20 years later, I still have a sealed pack of about 15 disks with all my work on them (along with a few of my favorite games) and I was wondering if it was possible to get the data out somehow so that I could run it in emulation on my Mac. I know of the emulators, but have no clue what would be needed to extract the data — or if it is even extractable after all these years. I realize the chances of the data still being intact are quite low, but I'd like to give it a shot. So if anyone has any pointers it would be greatly appreciated."
A large hurdle will be finding a drive to read the Amstrad disks at all.
Otherwise you're pretty boned.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
In addition to the usual hapless corporate customers needing to restore 10 year old backup tapes at the request of lawyers, forensic data recoverers can now market to nostalgic boomers looking to relive their C64 and Sinclair ZX-80 experiences.
There is big money here - look at the motorcycle industry, which used to be pitched to outlaws, kids, and the outdoorsy, and is now aiming for the Viagra and $100-bottle-of-wine crowd.
I still have a huge library of Fortran code on 1/2" tape. If I ever want to see that code again will somebody please kill me.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Yes, because VMWare will totally help you run a system that originally ran on a Z80, and used utterly non-standard disks which no other drive will accept.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
Well VMware is pretty damn awesome.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Sprinkle the disks with iron filings and scan them on a flatbed scanner. Then write a new and absolutely pointless program to retrieve the data from the scans.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Three FOOT floppy? Hate to to see it when it's not floppy.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
You're a programmer,
Uh, didn't he say they were written in BASIC?
(=I kid. Really. Uh huh.=)
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Ultra-ATA? Ha ha... you are so young. IDE didn't even exist yet when the 5 1/4" floppy first appeared. Those were the days of 5 MB hard disk with ST-506 interfaces, 1-5 MHz CPUs, and 40-column monochrome displays. Now get off my lawn!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Exactly, the $285 is much cheaper. ;)