Floppy Disks

earthstorm

just run the barcode through our barcode scanner and all it comes with is

10 3.5" Floppy Disc Pack - Supplies Team

earthstorm

Jo4 wrote: »

I never heard of that before. What is it or how much does it cost or where do you get it?

i think he may mean something like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5-USB-External-Portable-Floppy-Disk-Drive-1-44Mb-for-PC-Laptop-Data-Storage-/320786216946?pt=UK_Computing_FloppyDiskDrives_SM&hash=item4ab05937f2

closed

in what way does he think this particular brand are different, loads of brands had sliding metal covers

eg sony, tdk, imation, 3m etc etc and those brands are far more reliable than generics in my experience

a usb drive isn't going to be any use

Jo4

earthstorm wrote: »

i think he may mean something like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5-USB-External-Portable-Floppy-Disk-Drive-1-44Mb-for-PC-Laptop-Data-Storage-/320786216946?pt=UK_Computing_FloppyDiskDrives_SM&hash=item4ab05937f2

Thanks. He has that already.

Jo4

closed wrote: »

in what way does he think this particular brand are different, loads of brands had sliding metal covers

eg sony, tdk, imation, 3m etc etc and those brands are far more reliable than generics in my experience

a usb drive isn't going to be any use

He said they last longer and they are more reliable.

closed

unless you know someone in local government with a dust covered pack in a stock cupboard, he may end up unlucky. I've got decades old ones from sony/3m/tdk etc, still work fine

googler

I note that the online manual for this Korg unit is dated 1995. Music sequencing and MIDI tech is bound to have moved on since then - is there anything more up-to-date which will do the same, perhaps more, than the Korg?

paddyrg

Jo4 wrote: »

He said they last longer and they are more reliable.

With all respect, a 20-year-old drive isn't the benchmark in reliability. It will fail permanently soon, which will make the brand of floppy and whether the metal cover is bare or painted moot!

When it dies, you could try something like http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-Floppy-Disk-Drive-to-USB-emulator-Simulation-For-Musical-Keyboard-1-44MB-/160981836855

Not sure how it works driver-wise, or if Korg used any unusual/fancy/nonstandard formats which would scupper the plan, but if you could get it working you'd have 1000 floppies on a USB stick

ETA -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-USB-SSD-Simulation-Floppy-Disk-Drive-Emulator-Plug-For-YAMAHA-KORG-Keyboard-/360779239595

claims to work with KORG keyboards.

Nilrem

earthstorm wrote: »

i think he may mean something like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5-USB-External-Portable-Floppy-Disk-Drive-1-44Mb-for-PC-Laptop-Data-Storage-/320786216946?pt=UK_Computing_FloppyDiskDrives_SM&hash=item4ab05937f2

I think he means one of the devices you can get that replace the old floppy drive (by connecting via the floppy drive interface), with either a flash memory reader, or even a network interface.

Because there are a lot of specialist bits of kit (especially in manufacturing*) that still use the floppy disk for instructions, there are companies that make the replacement interfaces.

Unfortunately such interfaces tend to be fairly expensive as they are often custom made.


Back to the Op.

Re the floppy disks.
They are standard 3.52 2MB/1.44MB "ibm" formatted - so any 3.5" double sided, double density disk will do.
The IBM formatted bit basically means they were ready to use on normal Windows/Dos PC's without you having to format them first. as back in the day PC's running Dos/windows were called "IBM compatible" as IBM made the first machines with that specific hardware/software mix, and so almost every PC now (except some Apple's) are what would once have been referred to as "IBM compatible"
Back then there were several different OS's and hardware setups that could use the 3.5" disks, so they came either blank (format yourself) or formatted for "IBM compatible" (the only real difference being that if you owned an IBM compatible PC you could save a minute or so when using the disk for the first time).
For an Amiga for example you'd either buy the unformatted disks, or an IBM formatted one but reformat it before use.

The flap on the floppy was always metal in my experience, although some brands had the metal painted/coated to make it look better (for example if you bought a black disk, the metal flap would often be black).

/ends history lesson


*They were commonly used for things like weaving machines, cnc etc, and because the machines often cost hundreds of thousands of pounds (and up), companies don't want to replace a working machine just because the floppy drive.

Nilrem

paddyrg wrote: »

With all respect, a 20-year-old drive isn't the benchmark in reliability. It will fail permanently soon, which will make the brand of floppy and whether the metal cover is bare or painted moot!

When it dies, you could try something like http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-Floppy-Disk-Drive-to-USB-emulator-Simulation-For-Musical-Keyboard-1-44MB-/160981836855

Not sure how it works driver-wise, or if Korg used any unusual/fancy/nonstandard formats which would scupper the plan, but if you could get it working you'd have 1000 floppies on a USB stick

ETA -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-USB-SSD-Simulation-Floppy-Disk-Drive-Emulator-Plug-For-YAMAHA-KORG-Keyboard-/360779239595

claims to work with KORG keyboards.

You are a star, that's the sort of thing I was thinking of in my post (ended up starting the post, then getting called away for ages before pressing submit).
A lot cheaper than I remember them, although last time I was looking it was at more industrial interfaces.