# 3.5" floppy problem **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042 "2008-07-02T14:15:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/1 "2008-07-02T14:15:40Z")
I have a ballistic program on a 3.5 and it doesn’t run very good on my P-4 laptop(locks up the display) so I take out my old 486 nec laptop and the disc will not read in the drive. The message asks if I want to format the disc in A:. and disc’s that work with the old laptop don’t read in the P-4 IBM (both). This isn’t a new issue, as I have had trouble with 3.5’s in the P-4 forever. Is there a trick that can be done to get the disc to read, I am thinking its an alignment issue. and there is no cd drive in the 486 pc. Would like to get this program onto the 486 computer. Its really the only thing I need on that computer. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/2 "2008-07-02T14:27:48Z")
You can buy a [USB floppy drive](http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=287) for the price of a couple happy meals. Probably a lot easier than trying to get the thing to work on an ancient laptop. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/3 "2008-07-02T14:42:11Z")
How about copying the program to a USB memory stick and using that to transfer it to the 486? ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/4 "2008-07-02T14:46:19Z")
Don’t mention lame pun about 3.5" floppy problem, don’t mention lame pun about 3.5" floppy problem… whew! That was close. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/5 "2008-07-02T14:47:11Z")
What’s a 3.5" floppy? 😕 d&r 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/6 "2008-07-02T15:15:05Z")
LA, That was a good one! Hey its either use this use the old one or toss it. Hey, This 486 doesn’t know what a USB is! Its got the serial, parallel, and a docking port. The 3.5 drive pops out in a 1/2 second!, and a pop out fax modem. The battery is dead, but the power cable runs it just fine. AND its got windows 98 I was thinking maybe a little shimming of the disc, or another hole drilled in it like the old high and low density 3.5’s :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/7 "2008-07-02T15:22:35Z")
[QUOTE=Gbro] LA, That was a good one! Hey its either use this use the old one or toss it. Hey, This 486 doesn’t know what a USB is! Its got the serial, parallel, and a docking port. The 3.5 drive pops out in a 1/2 second!, and a pop out fax modem. The battery is dead, but the power cable runs it just fine. AND its got windows 98 I was thinking maybe a little shimming of the disc, or another hole drilled in it like the old high and low density 3.5’s :smack: [/QUOTE] If the newer computer has a serial port, and you can get hold of a null-modem cable to run between the two computers, I think windows built-in networking will let you transfer files (never done it, but I hear it works). ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/8 "2008-07-02T15:34:05Z")
Then you want a [PCMCIA USB adapter](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nisis-PCMCIA-USB-2-0-Card/dp/B00027YIJK). Only £6.99. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/9 "2008-07-02T17:11:17Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Then you want a [PCMCIA USB adapter](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nisis-PCMCIA-USB-2-0-Card/dp/B00027YIJK). Only £6.99. [/QUOTE] Be aware in this scenario that there is difference between 16 bit PCMCIA and 32 bit PCCARD (ie PCMCIA 2.0) adapters. So far as I know there were never any USB PCMCIA adapters made as the USB spec did not work with an 16 bit interface. Some 486’s would use the newer PCCARD interfaces, but many could not and were PCMCIA only (ie no USB) only. Although called “PCMCIA” I’m pretty sure the USB adapter your link references is a PCCARD unit. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/10 "2008-07-02T17:13:12Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] What’s a 3.5" floppy? 😕 [/QUOTE] It’s that newfangled little disk that Macs use instead of a 5-and-a-quarter-inch floppy. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/11 "2008-07-02T17:37:06Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] It’s that newfangled little disk that Macs use instead of a 5-and-a-quarter-inch floppy. [/QUOTE] Bah! Who needs more than 140 KB on a disk? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/12 "2008-07-02T18:47:20Z")
[QUOTE=Santo Rugger] Don’t mention lame pun about 3.5" floppy problem, don’t mention lame pun about 3.5" floppy problem… whew! That was close. [/QUOTE] Ok, I’ll bite. Ha! I kill me. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/13 "2008-07-02T18:49:09Z")
Any chance you can email the program to yourself? I’ve got a Windows 95 PC which I can still use to dial-up to my ISP and access email. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/14 "2008-07-02T19:30:03Z")
3.5’s aren’t floppies. They are stiffies. 5.25’s and 8’s were floppies. (yeah, calling them stiffies should help with the jokes around here…) Anyway, what operating system does the program use? I would try getting the program onto a decent modern computer and using some sort of dos emulation program (assuming it’s a dos program) to make it run. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/15 "2008-07-02T19:31:10Z")
[QUOTE=Bytegeist] Bah! Who needs more than 140 KB on a disk? [/QUOTE] Yeah, real men have 8 inches. (um, 8 floppy inches, yessirree). ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/16 "2008-07-02T19:46:39Z")
Use the laptop that will read it to copy it to another floppy. Freshly written it will be more likely to be read by the other drive. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/17 "2008-07-02T20:55:53Z")
[QUOTE=Quercus] If the newer computer has a serial port, and you can get hold of a null-modem cable to run between the two computers, I think windows built-in networking will let you transfer files (never done it, but I hear it works). [/QUOTE] I’ve got an ancient little utility program which will do this in DOS (using the cable). Somewhere. On a floppy … ---
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/18 "2008-07-03T03:41:48Z")
[QUOTE=Projammer] Use the laptop that will read it to copy it to another floppy. Freshly written it will be more likely to be read by the other drive. [/QUOTE] Thank You, That worked! I have a computer to leave at the cabin where the rifle range is with Oehlers Ballistic Explorer. Old program but very easy to use 🙂🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/19 "2008-07-03T12:51:07Z")
According to McLuhan, the medium is the message. When referring to floppies, the medium is the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-5-floppy-problem/455042/20 "2008-07-03T13:58:13Z")
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