Unreadable 2.0 MB(!?) Diskette

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I have a couple of floppy diskettes that I can’t read. The shutter of the disks says ‘ 3M, High Density, Haute densite, 2.0 MB ‘. I believe they were last written to in the mid-90s. When I try to read one in my Win98 computer, I get a message explaining that the disk isn’t formatted.

Of course, I could format, but I’d lose the data I’m supposed to retrieve…

I’m sure there are some loungers out there who can point me in the right direction. Thanks.

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Do you have a 2.0 meg floppy drive in this machine?
These floppies can NOT be read by the standard floppy drive.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Do you know the history of the 2 Meg floppy drive? This is the first time I’ve every heard of or seen one. How long were they popular, or weren’t they EVER popular?

Thanks.

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They were on the market just before the “Zip” drives came out, and forced the 2 megs floppy into not being used much. 100 megs vs. 2 megs made a lot since.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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The only machines I ever saw fitted with them were IBMs, that’s not to say IBM were the only company to utilise them. What ever happened to OS2?

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Here’s an update if you’re interested.

Doesn’t matter that they say they’re 2 Meg diskettes. They were formatted on a macintosh, so I’ll just fire up one of the Macs I have laying around to explore the files — which, FYI — date back to 1993. Not bad for floppy disk longevity!

Have a good one!

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…even if it were the correct size, a floppy written in the 90s could well have lost its content by now. Never, ever, use floppies as your only back-up media. The changes made to the magnetic material as data is written to the disc are not permanent in the long term.

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Thanks; I’ll pass this information on.

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