Floppy Disk / Diskettes // Retrocmp / Retro Computing

Posted2 months agoActive2 months ago

rbanffy

62 points

19 comments

retrocmp.deTechstory

calmmixed

Debate

20/100

Retro ComputingFloppy DisksNostalgia

Key topics

Retro Computing

Floppy Disks

Nostalgia

The post shares a collection of information about floppy disks, sparking a discussion among commenters about the nostalgia and limitations of old technology, as well as the challenges of using retro tech today.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Active discussion

First comment

Peak period

72-84h

Avg / period

4.8

Comment distribution19 data points

Loading chart...

Based on 19 loaded comments

Key moments

01Story posted
Oct 28, 2025 at 8:49 AM EDT
2 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Oct 31, 2025 at 12:40 PM EDT
3d after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
14 comments in 72-84h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Nov 3, 2025 at 7:54 AM EST
2 months ago
Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (19 comments)

Showing 19 comments

jmclnx

2 months ago

3 replies

One thing I really miss with flash drives, a write protect switch.

Yes, I can mount 'ro', but many (all?) Linux Desktops mount the drive write through its GUI. I have aliases for mounting and never used the pointy-clicky mount in DEs.

FWIW, I am usually in fvwm or cwm, depending on screen size, so I mount 'ro' when I want to. But a hw switch on flash drives would have been nice :)

torgoguys

2 months ago

1 reply

Using an SD card (or micro SD in an adapter) connected to a USB reader might meet your needs. You can then use the SD write protect switch.

jhallenworld

2 months ago

I thing I learned only recently is that the write protect switch on the SD card is not an electrical switch connected to anything in the SD card itself: it just hits a lever in the SD socket that opens a contact closure and it's up to the system (hardware and software both) to bother to look at it. So on many systems the write protect switch doesn't even work.

mrob

2 months ago

With the default ext4 filesystem, mounting 'ro' doesn't actually prevent writes to the disk. For that you need 'noload' too, to prevent journal replay. This can result in a broken filesystem if it wasn't unmounted cleanly, although assuming it's 100% read-only it shouldn't do any permanent damage (perhaps enforce read-only access at the block device level to be sure).

c22

2 months ago

You might like: https://www.kanguru.com/products/kanguru-ss3

therealmarv

2 months ago

1 reply

I only see a 403

orphea

2 months ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20251002092405/https://retrocmp....

nticompass

2 months ago

1 reply

As a kid (ok, as an adult too), I knew what the "CH" on floppies meant. I was curious, but never asked or tried looking it up.

I forget when, but one day, it dawned on me that it said "HD"!

I guess most of my floppies had their labels on in such a way that the flap/door was facing down, so it said "CH". To read "HD," then the label would be upside down.

nticompass

2 months ago

I just noticed that I said "I knew", when I meant "I never knew". I guess I accidentally a word there.

ochrist

2 months ago

3 replies

I still have a few floppy disks packed away at the loft, but I wonder if they still work the next time I turn on my BBC or Archimedes.

forinti

2 months ago

1 reply

The last time I checked, the only 5,25" floppies that still worked from that age were the ones in those Acornsoft covers.

terinjokes

2 months ago

I recently repaired an Apple II that were stored in a binder in an environment that wasn't climate controlled (for ~35 years). The 5.25" floppies had all developed a layer of stickiness, but all but one read fine once I cleaned up the drives.

Tor3

2 months ago

My collection of 5 1/4" floppies were mostly fine, after some thirty years. I think I had one or two (of very many) with read errors. 3.5" floppies though.. just about every "HD" (1.44MB) ones were a goner. The "DD" (720kB) fared much better.

snvzz

2 months ago

I'd suggest grabbing a greaseweazle[0] ahead of that.

0. github.com/keirf/greaseweazle/

buildsjets

2 months ago

2 replies

A trivia not touched on in the article - IBM 5 1/4" floppy drives had dual heads and could read the front and back side of a disk without flipping. For cost savings Apple ][ drives had only one head so you had to flip the disk occasionally. But to convert an IBM 5 1/4" floppy for dual sided used on an Apple, you had to cut a second write-protection notch, either with scissors, and xacto-knife, a hole punch, or with a dedicated "drive doubler" puncher.

https://atariprojects.org/2019/06/28/make-floppy-disks-doubl...

wlindley

2 months ago

The original IBM PC could be purchased either with 160KB/180KB single-sided floppy drives, or the 320KB/360KB double-sided. Some early IBM PC users still needed the "flippy" trick!

See IBM advert, https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1983-10_OCR/page/n111/mo...

layer8

2 months ago

Same for the C64 floppy drive (1541).

larodi

2 months ago

does anyone anywhere in the world still produce diskettes... if I want to start my very old Apple ][ - what are my options?

ionwake

2 months ago

I just feel like tech moved so fast that in SOME ways its sad.

I just wish we could still use retro tech in some way without having to replace it.

View full discussion on Hacker News