Modern motherboard, no FDC, suggestions???

I've been looking for quite some time for a solution which will allow me to use old floppy disks in a modern system. Most motherboards now dont have an onboard FDC so you're left having to use an external usb floppy drive, which doesn't quite fit my needs.

I've looked into kryoflux which I thought would do the trick but it seems does not. I've tried searching for some sort of PCI controller card but had no such luck. I also remember owning an old sound card which had a floppy port, though this would have been ISA I'm sure.

So basically, I'm wondering if there is anyone that can offer advice on getting true Floppy disk support in a modern system.

For the time being, I still run a relatively modern machine (Pentium D) which has a floppy disk so can do any reading and writing from there.

Please no comments about obsolete technology, I'm well aware of that

thanks in advance...

The easiest way would probably to get a external usb floppy drive. They go for about 20-30 dollar.

There are some imaging programs that require a real FDC so a USB drive will not work. Unfortunately I have not found anything.

Are you sure an external USB floppy won't work, I have used one for low level stuff like BIOS recovery and it did work even tho it is USB. Maybe for ancient machines it won't work.

Almost every floppy can be burned to a cd as track one.

Maybe if you locate one of these ... http://icomp.de/products/cwmk4+_e.htm

Another option, if you can find one, is the "SuperDisk" drives like the LS-120 that connected via IDE. They can read/write 3.5" floppies.

If the software is looking for /dev/fd0 for the floppy drive and the actual /dev/ for it doesn't match that, you can symlink /dev/fd0 to it and that might be a work around. Assuming a linux issue. I just keep my old computers with old i/o devices around for this type of thing and image the data as I need it from the medium in question.

If your need is to boot the floppy, you can do that from a grub boot cd (el torito). And other means to use a cd boot disc to boot the usb device. Even on devices that do not support booting usb, but have usb. My laptop is like that. I boot linux from a flash drive which I boot from a grub cd as the bootloader.

dosemu and/or dosbox? And other tricks depending on your needs.

I think most linux distro's still support floppy drives on device /dev/fd0, it's only because no motherboard manufacturer supports the floppy anymore that everyone thinks it's nolonger supported. I think everyone's suggestion so far for the a usb floppy would most likely suit your needs, I would try that, and if your having any trouble with that just start a new post asking for help, I'm sure we will be able to help with a work around to get you going.

Originally Posted by plisken I've been looking for quite some time for a solution which will allow me to use old floppy disks in a modern system. Most motherboards now dont have an onboard FDC so you're left having to use an external usb floppy drive, which doesn't quite fit my needs.

Whats your usage scenario more exactly? Why USB drives wont work for you?

Originally Posted by NyteOwl Maybe if you locate one of these ... http://icomp.de/products/cwmk4+_e.htm Another option, if you can find one, is the "SuperDisk" drives like the LS-120 that connected via IDE. They can read/write 3.5" floppies.

Tried contacting them a few times, no joy as yet.

Originally Posted by gradinaruvasile Whats your usage scenario more exactly? Why USB drives wont work for you?

5 & 1/4

Have you considered a SCSI floppy drive? You might be able to pick one up on eBay, and there are plenty of PCI (and PCIe) SCSI adaptors on the market. In my limited experience they tend to be well supported under Linux, being popular in servers an' all.

If you get hold of a 50-pin floppy drive, I might be able to help with the adaptor - I have a surplus 50-pin PCI SCSI card in my cupboard of doom, and since you're in the Promised Land I'd be happy to post it to you. Assuming it still works of course.

If an external drive won't work there is anything I can think of other then having a real floppy drive.

Some modern motherboards do have floppy drive connectors though!
For example:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813157266
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813157215
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813157309