2HD Floppy Disks

[RadDave]

Amen to that!!! Thanks for hanging in there with me. Greatly appreciated.

Hi Geecee.. - hope that those 'old' floppy discs are still 'readable' for the optical transfer - let us know and best of luck! Dave

 

[geecee58]

Hi Geecee.. - hope that those 'old' floppy discs are still 'readable' for the optical transfer - let us know and best of luck! Dave

Will do Dave. I pick them up on Friday afternoon after my concert that morning. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

 

[pm-r]

I stopped in at local computer repair shop to see if they had anything I could purchase to transfer data to a CD. He said he would do it for me for $20.00. I didn't have to think twice about it; they'll be ready on Friday.

Good choice and cheap at thrice that price and I was going to suggest looking for someone to do it for you.

 

[geecee58]

Good choice and cheap at thrice that price and I was going to suggest looking for someone to do it for you.

I know, I almost felt guilty not paying more since it's just a little self owned computer repair shop. I'm sure he could have used the extra cash. My old iMac mid-2011's head phone jack no longer works, I'm using a headphone adapter in one of my usb ports, so he's the fellow I'll take it to for repairs.

 

[pigoo3]

I know, I almost felt guilty not paying more since it's just a little self owned computer repair shop. I'm sure he could have used the extra cash.

If you're feeling this bad…give the dude $50 instead of $20! Maybe his surprise reaction alone will be worth the extra $30!!!

- Nick

 

[geecee58]

If you're feeling this bad…give the dude $50 instead of $20! Maybe his surprise reaction alone will be worth the extra $30!!!

- Nick

I said I "almost felt guilty" LOL!!! Good idea though. I'll give him a nice big tip. It certainly will be worth it even if he isn't able to save everything.

If you remember in my second post, I mentioned a Yamaha PSR-730 piano keyboard I had with a disk drive I purchased in the 70's that bit the dust a few months ago. I was able to win one just like it on eBay the other day. It just arrived and thank the Lord, all of my old disks work perfectly in its disk drive. I'm going to connect it to my computer input connection and store all of the songs on the floppy disk in Garageband, then transfer them to a CD for storage. Looks like a happy ending for both problems...

 

[RadDave]

I said I "almost felt guilty" LOL!!! Good idea though. I'll give him a nice big tip. It certainly will be worth it even if he isn't able to save everything.

If you remember in my second post, I mentioned a Yamaha PSR-730 piano keyboard I had with a disk drive I purchased in the 70's that bit the dust a few months ago. I was able to win one just like it on eBay the other day. It just arrived and thank the Lord, all of my old disks work perfectly in its disk drive. I'm going to connect it to my computer input connection and store all of the songs on the floppy disk in Garageband, then transfer them to a CD for storage. Looks like a happy ending for both problems...

Congrats! Glad that all is working out for you and good luck w/ the other project! Dave

 

[pigoo3]

...I mentioned a Yamaha PSR-730 piano keyboard I had with a disk drive I purchased in the 70's...

Are you sure about this?

3.5" floppy disks/floppy drives weren't really available until the early 1980's…and HD (high density) floppy disk's until the mid-80's. And used in Apple computers until about 2001.

Research I came across states that the Yamaha PSR-730 was released around the 1997-2000 time frame.

I only looked into this since the 1970's were mentioned. 1970's is certainly before the use of 3.5" floppy disks/drives.

Not super important overall. The important part is getting the data from the floppy disks to CD's.

- Nick

 

[geecee58]

Are you sure about this?

3.5" floppy disks/floppy drives weren't really available until the early 1980's…and HD (high density) floppy disk's until the mid-80's. And used in Apple computers until about 2001.

Research I came across states that the Yamaha PSR-730 was released around the 1997-2000 time frame.

I only looked into this since the 1970's were mentioned. 1970's is certainly before the use of 3.5" floppy disks/drives.

Not super important overall. The important part is getting the data from the floppy disks to CD's.

- Nick

You're right, I should have said 1997 not the 70's. I didn't start my teaching career until 1979. I got the keyboard when it first came out. I think I was the first one to purchase it in the music store I bought it in Ft. Wayne, Indiana(Fred Meyers Piano/No longer in business). At the time, the PSR-730 was on the leading edge of new piano keyboard technology. I never regretted being the ginny pig and got so much good out of it. I know there are keyboards now a days that leave this one in the dust, but I'm too old now to try to breakin and figure out how to use them. For what I use it for, the 730 is good enough for me. The disks I used in the keyboard were BASF 2HD and Precision micro Floppy disk MF-2DD Double Sided/Double Density.

 

[RadDave]

Talking about floppies and dates brought back some memories - looking at the floppy disk Wiki Article shows their introduction years below - I started my academic radiology career in 1977 and my manuscript secretaries were using 8" floppies (my first article was published in 1978) - bought my first computer in 1981, an Apple II+ w/ two 5 1/4" floppy drives, then was overjoyed when the smaller 1.44 MB small hard case floppies were released and fit in a shirt pocket - WOW so much storage and convenience! Dave

Floppy Introduction Years

8” 1972-73

5 1/4” 1978-79

3 1/2” 1983-84

 

[pigoo3]

You're right, I should have said 1997 not the 70's.

No biggie. All is good.

During the early 1990's…I purchased a used electronic keyboard from the 1970's…and the technology in it was pretty rudimentary digital. I wish I could remember what brand & model it was. It was:

- big & very heavy
- had full size keys (which were touch sensitive)…softer/louder.
- I believe it had 76 keys (not a full 88).
- I think that it had a fan/fans inside.
- It had builtin "voices"…but much more "synthi-sounding" than realistic.
- It could record what you were doing for playback…or as a background beat for the tune you were playing. But it couldn't save anything for later use (no drive's).

One day the thing crapped-out…and that was it! Moved onto much more modern keyboard to mess around with.

- Nick

 

[geecee58]

Some of the keyboard brands back in the 70's were Roland, Yamaha, RMI, Krog, Honner and even Wurlitzer had various synthesizers and keyboards. They've come a long way since then.

The PSR 730 was made to be more of work station than to be used to play in a concert. This is good for me because I'm not the best keyboard player in the room. It only has 61 keys and many of my friends that are exceptional piano players would baulk at playing it if I did use it at church or concerts because it didn't have 88 keys. It didn't matter to me, I basically used it to create music tracks and vocal arrangements. When I got my first iMac, I was excited to find out I could connect it and play my arrangements directly into Garageband instead of recording and storing them on the floppy disk. Plus, I had so many more tracks I could record various instruments on than the limited four tracks on the keyboard. I could actually hook it up to just about any computer, but I am a die heart Mac user. Nothing else will do...

 

[geecee58]

Talking about floppies and dates brought back some memories - looking at the floppy disk Wiki Article shows their introduction years below - I started my academic radiology career in 1977 and my manuscript secretaries were using 8" floppies (my first article was published in 1978) - bought my first computer in 1981, an Apple II+ w/ two 5 1/4" floppy drives, then was overjoyed when the smaller 1.44 MB small hard case floppies were released and fit in a shirt pocket - WOW so much storage and convenience! Dave

I wonder, a 100 years from now what will be replacing the things we use to store data on today, and what it will look like?

 

[nickyr]

I wonder, a 100 years from now what will be replacing the things we use to store data on today, and what it will look like?

It'll just be "there".

Glad you got your data transferred

 

[RadDave]

I wonder, a 100 years from now what will be replacing the things we use to store data on today, and what it will look like?

Well, for a start, check out this ARTICLE which I read earlier this year - DNA may be the answer? The molecule has worked well for millions of years, so maybe the future of backup/long-term storage - neat stuff! Dave
.

 

[geecee58]

I would say there is a greater chance for all of the things listed in this article coming to pass than the flying cars that were predicted in our "Weekly Reader," back in the late 50's and early 60's when I was in elementary school. I thought the use of helium instead of air was the most interesting. DNA storage sounds more robotic. I can just see a robot take over in the year 2250. No more need for humans... scary...