# Any hope of reading old floppies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 18, 2005, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-hope-of-reading-old-floppies/317557 "2005-08-18T08:03:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-hope-of-reading-old-floppies/317557/1 "2005-08-18T08:03:24Z")
I grew up with an Apple IIe. I was wondering if there was any chance of being able to recover tha data from the old floppies in order to run the old computer or an emulator, reminisce a bit and maybe see if I can beat the unlit rooms in Montezuma’s revenge. Is there hope? ---
**Author:** ![MAGunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@MAGunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MAGunter)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-hope-of-reading-old-floppies/317557/2 "2005-08-18T08:20:52Z")
Jesus H. I used Apple IIe’s too…when I was 8 years old. Not sure if you could ever get that data read today, but I bet you could get one of the old Apples on e-bay for relatively cheap. I’m seeing them for as little as $10. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-hope-of-reading-old-floppies/317557/3 "2005-08-18T08:24:47Z")
> [@riker1384](#): > > I grew up with an Apple IIe. I was wondering if there was any chance of being able to recover tha data from the old floppies in order to run the old computer or an emulator, reminisce a bit and maybe see if I can beat the unlit rooms in Montezuma’s revenge. Is there hope? You would need special hardware to be able to read the Apple II floppies. Apple used a clever and unique data encoding scheme when Steve Wozniak designed the Apple II floppy disk drive and controller. It isn’t compatible with industry-standard floppy disk controllers like the Western Digital 1771 and successors. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2005, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-hope-of-reading-old-floppies/317557/4 "2005-08-18T09:01:38Z")
Even if you could read the disks, chances are the disks themselves are suffering from “bit rot” and the games wouldn’t be playable anyway. Floppies are only good for about 10 years. The chances of getting a 20 year old disk to read are pretty slim. Do a google search for apple II emulators. You can probably find one that has the game you want to play, if it was a popular game. ---
**Author:** ![Viscera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/258eb7/32.png) [@Viscera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Viscera)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-hope-of-reading-old-floppies/317557/5 "2005-08-18T09:47:02Z")
Best Apple II emulator I’ve seen, but it’s not really an emulator per se. You just go to the website and play the games true-style. You can even save them to a directory on your computer. Over 1200 games I think, including the one you are asking about. [http://www.virtualapple.com/](http://www.virtualapple.com/) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-hope-of-reading-old-floppies/317557/6 "2005-08-18T14:03:06Z")
Five and a quarter or three and a half? Any Mac between the SE FDHD (first appearance of the high-density drive) and the iMac (disappearance of the floppy drive) will be able to read a 3.5" diskette that’s in Pro-Dos (Apple II) format. It will mount on the Macintosh desktop. The 5.25" floppies are a different story. I don’t know what will read them aside from an Apple II.