Floppy disc. A what

[Dr mac]

Ok I have a minibus I’m currently working on

Sorry no pics today.
What I do have is paperwork from the bus company.Sitll waiting for the title.
In my paperwork I received a 3.5 floppy.

We started laughing when we seen it hit the table.
How do or where do I get this thing opened and put on a flash drive
Any help.
T. I.A

[Dr mac]

Oh never mind they sell a usb 3.5 disc drive on amazon
Go figure.
Now if Amazon will just deliver my meds and bourbon

[cadillackid]

hey I still have ACTIVE gear in the field running on 5 1/4" floppy diskettes and old 40 MEG SCSI hard drives...

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

hey I still have ACTIVE gear in the field running on 5 1/4" floppy diskettes and old 40 MEG SCSI hard drives...

Um....you're the curator of the Museum Of Digital Obsolescence I take it?

[cadillackid]

Hotels just dont update their phone systems very often.. actually we make a boatload of $$$ keeping those old systems running... (then replacing them when they do die)

[Drew Bru]

Yeah, I bet! I've heard the US govt. is still using 80s technology to maintain the nuclear arsenal.

[cadillackid]

theres still a lot of office buildings and schools running on Barber coleman Network 8000 HVAC and lighting computers.. I learned how to hack those in the late 80s..



whats scary is that these things are troopers and considered pretty powerfulk hybrid PLC's even in today's world..

[Dr mac]

Actually they still use floppy.
When they were dealing with last report to Congress I seen s floppy.

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

Hotels just dont update their phone systems very often.. actually we make a boatload of $$$ keeping those old systems running... (then replacing them when they do die)

I have been back to properties that I installed Mitel in almost 20 years before and it was still chugging along.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by PNW_Steve

I have been back to properties that I installed Mitel in almost 20 years before and it was still chugging along.

the mitels with 3.5" disks, the trick to them is you duplicate the software and then replace disk #2 every year which is where the hotel PMS writes the room name and resitrction data.. To the same set of tracks.. so it wears out that disk.. if that disk doesnt read during boot up its an E.2 error and no phones..



our hitachis in the field use 5 1/4" disks and 40 MEG hard drives.. supposedly theres a few Hitachi systems in the field still that run on 3 8.5" floppies.. they arent any of our properties..



whats interesting is I replace my fair share of Mitels from the 03/04 era that have failed Flash disks in them..

-Christopher

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

the mitels with 3.5" disks, the trick to them is you duplicate the software and then replace disk #2 every year which is where the hotel PMS writes the room name and resitrction data.. To the same set of tracks.. so it wears out that disk.. if that disk doesnt read during boot up its an E.2 error and no phones..



our hitachis in the field use 5 1/4" disks and 40 MEG hard drives.. supposedly theres a few Hitachi systems in the field still that run on 3 8.5" floppies.. they arent any of our properties..



whats interesting is I replace my fair share of Mitels from the 03/04 era that have failed Flash disks in them..

-Christopher

When I was working on the old Mitel SX they didn't have disc drives. That was mid '80s to early '90s.

I started in the industry installing 1A2 and finished installing Shoretel VOIP. Watched quite an evolution of technology.

[Native]

FYI: I have a fair supply of 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives and controllers along with hundreds of disks of each. I may even have a few of those 40MB drives. All used, of course. The old SCSI drives seem to keep plugging along much like an old diesel engine.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Native

FYI: I have a fair supply of 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives and controllers along with hundreds of disks of each. I may even have a few of those 40MB drives. All used, of course. The old SCSI drives seem to keep plugging along much like an old diesel engine.

esp when they are on 24/7/365.. the big times we have failures in the field is if a power outage occurs.. ie batteries go dead or site generator fails to start before the system batteries fail.. once the spindles get cold on those old HDD's they love to seize.. sometimes you can give them a shake to restart, othertimes they are just done..