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So it was my birthday and I am 32 now. My sister thought it would be funny to give me an 8" floppy diskette to decorate my wall or just as a mockery of the slow approach of death. It looks like it is in good condition, and there is a label on it "H.Y.C. Hijacking of the Achille Lauro - 3". I was curious and I googled that.... it is a bad terrorism from 1985. So now I am wondering what the terrorist disk my sister gave me contains, but of course I have no means of reading it or even knowing if it was overwritten. What do you think is on it? Am I in the possession of secret intelligence or just a proto-Encarta article? Did Encarta exist in 1985? Does anyone know how I can get this read or do it myself without reconstructing a computer from 30 years ago???????? 
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Nov 17, 2019 23:28
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:32 |
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You can just buy a USB floppy drive on amazon or wherever, they're pretty cheap.
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Nov 17, 2019 23:30
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Zartosht posted:You can just buy a USB floppy drive on amazon or wherever, they're pretty cheap. I am afraid I cannot, because this is an 8" floppy, not 3.5" . unless you know of someone who has manufactured such a thing, the only 8" drives I can find have a parallel port. I do not have such a port and I don't think anyone makes a card to run such a thing on modern architecture..... would Windows10 even understand how to read that? The mystery grows.
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Nov 17, 2019 23:34
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To clarify for any zoomers who are somehow on these forums, 8 inch floppys were the things old people used to play oregon trail and they're the size of a small dinner plate and very floppy.
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Nov 17, 2019 23:36
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On this disk lies a warning about 9/11 from 1985...
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Nov 17, 2019 23:38
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It's a bit of a long shot but maybe you could try contacting NASA?
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Nov 17, 2019 23:44
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Probably AOL, OP. That poo poo was on everything.
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Nov 17, 2019 23:47
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Probably a Compuserve access floppy. Everything was Compuserve back in the 80s.
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Nov 17, 2019 23:49
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Dude, theres lots of Vintage computer forums, and youtubers that show off vintage hardware. You''ll have to get with them
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Nov 17, 2019 23:53
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Scornful Sexbot posted:To clarify for any zoomers who are somehow on these forums, 8 inch floppys were the things old people used to play oregon trail and they're the size of a small dinner plate and very floppy. I didn't even play ADVENTURE on 8" floppies, but I'm sure some people did wrt your question, I got confused and was thinking of when French commandos sank the Rainbow Warrior, so I'm of no help
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Nov 17, 2019 23:54
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Probably some of boring files from a chemical company.
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Nov 17, 2019 23:55
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Scornful Sexbot posted:So it was my birthday and I am 32 now. My sister thought it would be funny to give me an 8" floppy diskette to decorate my wall or just as a mockery of the slow approach of death. It looks like it is in good condition, and there is a label on it "H.Y.C. Hijacking of the Achille Lauro - 3". I was curious and I googled that.... it is a bad terrorism from 1985. So now I am wondering what the terrorist disk my sister gave me contains, but of course I have no means of reading it or even knowing if it was overwritten. OP where are you located? let's google around a bit to see if there's any retro computer guys near you. maybe even such as a PC repair shop or university may have this hardware Accessible.
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Nov 18, 2019 00:01
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Empty Sandwich posted:I didn't even play ADVENTURE on 8" floppies, but I'm sure some people did I played on an Apple II and it had a 5 1/4" floppy drive. I was like 8 years old and it was bigger in my memory. I thought it was 8" because the human mind is pathetic and flawed. I don't think I have ever used an 8" disk myself......... what is this thing???
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Nov 18, 2019 00:01
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PHIZ KALIFA posted:OP where are you located? let's google around a bit to see if there's any retro computer guys near you. maybe even such as a PC repair shop or university may have this hardware Accessible. I wouldn't know where to start looking, but I do live not super-far from Rutgers University New Brunswick campus?
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Nov 18, 2019 00:03
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assuming you got the hardware to actually read the thing, the technical answer to your question, boringly, is "Yea Windows 10 could read it" assuming it's not Apple/Linux formatted or some weird poo poo. That said, even MORE boringly and stupid, magnetic media degrades and there's a fair to middling chance that even if you WERE to source hardware to read the media that worked, the media itself would face a problem of corruption caused by it's own radioactive/magnetic degradation. The correct response to this is: "Oh."
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Nov 18, 2019 00:09
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Zartosht posted:You can just buy a USB floppy drive on amazon or wherever, they're pretty cheap. 
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Nov 18, 2019 00:12
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Scornful Sexbot posted:I wouldn't know where to start looking, but I do live not super-far from Rutgers University New Brunswick campus? well, first off, contact someone in their comp sci department and ask if they've got anything which could potentially read that disk. next, try a post in Nextdoor/Craigslist/local FB groups asking for contact info of retro computer enthusiasts. There's a handful of Canada city threads in LAN but none specifically for eastern Canada as far as I can tell: https://forums.somethingawful.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=241 Here's a quicko google of some shops which might be worth calling: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=l...lfi=hd:;si:;mv:[[40.5325815,-74.42301429999999],[40.4615264,-74.4581393]];tbs:lrf:!1m4!1u3!2m2!3m1!1e1!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2 godspeed buddy
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Nov 18, 2019 00:14
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PHIZ KALIFA posted:well, first off, contact someone in their comp sci department and ask if they've got anything which could potentially read that disk. next, try a post in Nextdoor/Craigslist/local FB groups asking for contact info of retro computer enthusiasts. I should have specified, New Brunswick NJ in the good ol USA. That is still helpful, I am going to make it my mission to try that stuff this week.
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Nov 18, 2019 00:29
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Scornful Sexbot posted:I am afraid I cannot, because this is an 8" floppy, not 3.5" . unless you know of someone who has manufactured such a thing, the only 8" drives I can find have a parallel port. I do not have such a port and I don't think anyone makes a card to run such a thing on modern architecture..... would Windows10 even understand how to read that? The mystery grows. You can get a parallel port/ USB connection pretty easily, getting the drive is gonna be the hard part. I've had some luck finding old computer parts at estate sales, that kind of stuff always goes super cheap.
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Nov 18, 2019 00:41
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ah, my bad, i confused Rutgers (NJ) with Яutgers (CN). silly me.
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Nov 18, 2019 00:41
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I can't find anything on google to prove it but this thread jogged my memory of ancient computer poo poo and I'm pretty sure that what you've got there is a partial video game detailing the scrambling of jets during the immediate aftermath of the real hijacking. I dunno what the HYC is all about though.
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Nov 18, 2019 00:47
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PHIZ KALIFA posted:ah, my bad, i confused Rutgers (NJ) with Яutgers (CN). silly me.
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Nov 18, 2019 00:54
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I have a Supercard Pro that will USB connect floppy drives to a modern PC that can probably read the disk if someone has an 8" drive they can part with
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Nov 18, 2019 01:20
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Ebay definitely has 8 inch external drives listed, I literally just searched that and found a few. They ain't cheap however, ranging from $100 to $300.
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Nov 18, 2019 02:14
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Send it to one of these goons https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3756559
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Nov 18, 2019 02:17
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You could get an 8 inch floppy drive on ebay and a parallel to usb cable. I think it's worth the $100+ you will spend to read than random disk.
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Nov 18, 2019 04:16
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its pictures of my rear end, op
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Nov 18, 2019 05:12
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You're going to need to at least know what computer system it's for... if it's from the mid 1980's it could one of many... Atari, Apple, Commodore, Spectrum, PC DOS, etc.
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Nov 18, 2019 05:19
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Very intrigued by this post, in order of interest I really hope we find out: - What's on the disk? - Where's the bottom half of the picture?? - Who/what is H.Y.C.???
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Nov 18, 2019 05:21
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Curious to see what would happen if you were to put the floppy disk proper into a record player. Would the regular needle pick up anything? Maybe the digital one can pick up magnetic encodings that sound like satanic verses played backwards? 
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Nov 18, 2019 05:23
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CharminUltraStrong posted:Curious to see what would happen if you were to put the floppy disk proper into a record player. Would the regular needle pick up anything? Maybe the digital one can pick up magnetic encodings that sound like satanic verses played backwards? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5hZpjNZSp8
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Nov 18, 2019 05:27
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op you should make threads for everything you find. what's that old mountain dew bottle doing there? who drank from it? what secrets is it hiding?
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Nov 18, 2019 06:08
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i found this cap for a bic pen, but the pen itself was nowhere to be found. this looks like a mystery for the goons!
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Nov 18, 2019 06:09
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Nefarious 2.0 posted:op you should make threads for everything you find. what's that old mountain dew bottle doing there? who drank from it? what secrets is it hiding? I mean if the mountain dew bottle was labeled "SOLUTION TO ROANOKE MYSTERY" or something this might be a good slam
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Nov 18, 2019 06:11
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Captain Hygiene posted:Very intrigued by this post, in order of interest I really hope we find out:
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Nov 18, 2019 08:46
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man whatever was on that disk has at least partially demagnetized and gotten corrupted. Reading the disk will be the easy part
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Nov 18, 2019 10:12
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It's porn
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Nov 18, 2019 10:55
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Its an 8 inch floppy of my 3 inch floppy
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Nov 18, 2019 10:56
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Waltzing Along posted:It's porn Pretty sure porn at the time was all analog. Maybe get some tits via fax but that's the limit.
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Nov 18, 2019 11:15
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:32 |
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Even if you manage to get something to put it in, chances are it's completely unreadable now anyway. Floppies are poo poo.
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Nov 18, 2019 11:20
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