# opening ancient Macintosh floppy in PC

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-ancient-macintosh-floppy-in-pc/247053>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 25, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-ancient-macintosh-floppy-in-pc/247053 "2004-05-25T20:26:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-ancient-macintosh-floppy-in-pc/247053/21 "2004-05-26T14:41:54Z")

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the OP said 19 **9** 5 so they are probably 800K disks, which make it a BIT easier.

Can Mac USB floppy drives read 800k disks?  
Even a lowly SE/30 could theoretically have an Ethernet card.  
I would definitlely try a print shop They probably have an older Mac and it probably is networked.

OR:

With a Mac classic, read the 800K disk and transfer it to the hard drive.

Format a floppy in a Wintel machine and put it in the Classic, transfer the file to the PC floppy.

Brian

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**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-ancient-macintosh-floppy-in-pc/247053/22 "2004-05-26T16:08:18Z")

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> [@N9IWP](#):
>
> the OP said 19 **9** 5 so they are probably 800K disks, which make it a BIT easier.
> 
> Can Mac USB floppy drives read 800k disks?

They cannot. USB floppy drives are standard mechanisms with a USB interface attached to them. They aren’t Mac-specific, and any computer with the appropriate drivers can use them. The specialized mechanism used with 400/800K floppies was only available as a full-size drive on Macs and Amigas, AFAIK.

**drhess** , if you want you can mail the disks to me. I have several Macs that can read 400/800K disks. Send me an e-mail if you’re interested.

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