5.25" Floppy Support

[BigAlY2K]

OK I know this is unusual, BUT...

I'm a vintage software/computing enthusiast, and therefore would like to be able to use 5.25" floppy drives on newer systems running Windows 10 for imaging and/or data migration purposes, and be able to use that same system on the Internet (in order to upload disk images and/or extracted data) using a supported OS instead of risking security exploits running older, unsupported OSes due to hardware that is either incompatible and/or of insufficient performance.

Newer boards don't even have floppy controllers AT ALL.  NO BIOS mod will overcome the fact there is no physical interface to attach such a drive to.  I know this (I'm not an idiot.)  However, there ARE slightly older boards which do have floppy controllers that are still powerful enough to run Windows 10, however the option to select a B: and/or 5.25" floppy in the BIOS is eliminated, presumably so as not to confuse novice users, as the controllers themselves are the same AT-style controllers from the late 80s and have no physical limitation in accepting two drives as well as both types.  Gigabyte boards are notorious for this, but certainly other brands as well.

I was wondering if it would be possible (at least in some circumstances) to add the option to select a B: floppy back into BIOSes in which the manufacturer eliminates said option.  If so, I'd like to start posting a few requests here, as this would significantly increase the available options for compatible and versatile motherboards rather than accepting an unnecessary manufacturer imposed limitation.

Case example: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H

More requests to follow if this is doable and/or of interest.

Thanks in advance!

[johnkiniston]

I too am interested in 5.25 floppy support, I have a Acer T180 that should have a compatible controller.

[BigAlY2K]

I too am interested in 5.25 floppy support, I have a Acer T180 that should have a compatible controller.

ANY motherboard that has a floppy controller is CAPABLE of supporting TWO floppy drives of any combination of 720 KB 3.5", 1.44 MB 3.5", 2.88 MB 3.5", 360 KB 5.25", or 1.2 MB 5.25", although only one drive can be accessed at any one time (which makes having two of the same drive for disk to disk copies useless since the first drive must be read first then the second one written, so you may as well swap disks anyway.)  This is the physical design of an AT-compatible floppy controller that is implemented even on the most recent motherboards that still have them and has not changed since the advent of AT-compatible PCs.  It's a question of the BIOS having the options available to select.  There's a way to edit the BIOS code itself that I tried a while back but the settings just end up reverting on reboot anyway - at least on the system I tried this on.

All it would take is for the option to be "added" back into the BIOS.  I'm glad to see my post has generated at least some interest as I was beginning to think this was considered a bit of an outlandish request.

I have an AMD AM2 (AM3 CPU compatible) based system that has this option in the BIOS as factory stock - a Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 2.0 to be precise.  I'd like for the other board I mentioned to have this capability, too, as well as an Intel based system that could accept at least a Core 2 series CPU.  Gigabyte seems to have eliminated the option on boards that are compatible with Core 2s - not sure about other manufacturers.  And I KNOW nothing 115x/AM3(+) or newer will even have a floppy controller at all outside of a ridiculously expensive industrial motherboard.

There WAS one company called Individual Computers that made a line of PCI(E) floppy controllers called the Catweasel.  They're discontinued.  Good luck finding one, even on eBay.

There's also the Device Side Data FC5025 USB controller... read only.  Certainly great for archival, especially on the go, but not an ideal solution for full functionality.  I've ordered one so I have an avenue of using 5.25" floppies on modern PCs should I one day not have access to older systems/motherboards, as well as if I stumble upon a collection of floppies I'm not allowed to remove from site e.g. a library or someone's personal collection.

I'd just love to have the limitation removed on systems/motherboards where implemented unnecessarily, and I know it's possible...

[johnkiniston]

I believe I read somewhere that the SIO controllers on more modern chipsets all dropped support for the second floppy drive so you won't find anything newer than a P3 with two floppy support.

[BigAlY2K]

Again, any motherboard AT and later uses the same type floppy controller, which is CAPABLE of supporting TWO floppy drives (but limited to accessing only one at a time.) Manufacturers simply chose to remove the option from the BIOS on later models, thinking nobody would need to use a 5.25" floppy with a system that new and to make it less confusing for novice users. A Dell XPS 420, for example, has the options for "Off", "USB", "Internal", and a fourth one I can't remember right now. In other words, it EXPECTS a 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy drive, and it's either enabled or disabled. There's no option to select what type of floppy is attached, let alone a second drive.

I suspect that a BIOS mod for that system might be difficult at best, but with most aftermarket boards, I would think it would be somewhat straightforward for someone who knows how to do this. The Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H, for example, will accept a 5.25" floppy, but does not have a B: drive selection. That's a problem as even if you were to use a USB 3.5" floppy, it would become the B: drive with no avenue to swap the letter assignment as this is controlled at the BIOS level. I don't know of many scenarios where you'd want your drives assigned that way.

A Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 (Socket AM2 with an nForce 570 chipset) has dual floppy capability BY DEFAULT. I'm hellbent on maintaining one for this reason. I would just like to add the option in to other boards, and/or Intel based systems. Seems as if support for dual floppies is dropped with Core 2 CPU support... best I could do with what I could obtain was a GA-8I945GMF, which only supports Pentium Ds. It was ADEQUATE for Windows 10 at best. That said, I think that board is faulty but that's a separate discussion entirely...