Performer 3.42 diskette, can info be extracted?

[Ol'Geezer]

MIDI tracks recording on a 1990's floppy diskette from a Mac, (Performer 3.42 was used). Can the MIDI info in it still be obtained/extracted?

[HCMarkus]

Do you have a drive that will read the disc...?

[Ol'Geezer]

I do have an external floppy drive attached to my desk-top. After I inserted it, it just asks if I want to reformat. Meaning it cannot read what is on the diskette, (I have a Windows system and the diskette is from a Mac).

[stubbsonic]

Do you know someone with a mac --ideally, someone with an older mac with a floppy, but perhaps an external floppy drive will work.

It would probably be best if the file could be zipped (from the floppy to a USB removable). We've seen cases where older files don't load correctly, and the idea is that zipping them helps keep them intact.

DP has been pretty good about backward compatibility and its ability to load old projects.

[mikehalloran]

Macs used three Sony 3.5” floppy drives. 400k (pre Mac+) 800k and 1.4mb. Macs with the 1.4 drives such as the Beige G3 can read the 800k and 400k disks. There were other Macs with that drive, too, but I don’t recall that others could run OSX.

I don’t believe there was ever a USB drive that could read the 800k and 400k though they could read the 1.4mb disks. The Apple external drive had a serial connector.

I’d look for someone who owns a Beige G3 with a USB card installed so that, once the disks are read, you can store the data and sneaker-net it to your P C.


I still have some of those 800k disks but there is nothing I need on any of them.

[Ol'Geezer]

I know nobody with the passion to collect ancient technology, (G3). That's why I'm researching a work-around. Since I cant upload images here for whatever reason, here's a link to the image of what the diskettes are:

https://ibb.co/QpVPMdd

Hopefully it works...

[mikehalloran]

I know nobody with the passion to collect ancient technology, (G3). That's why I'm researching a work-around. Since I cant upload images here for whatever reason, here's a link to the image of what the diskettes are:

https://ibb.co/QpVPMdd

Hopefully it works...

Ok, those are definitely 800k disks. 1.4 disks have a rectangular cutout instead of square. Need to find someone with an old enough Mac to extract the data.

[Ol'Geezer]

Did I mention that I am severely MAC challenged...

Really don't know too much about them....how old, and what model should I be looking out for direction? (Thanks for your help).

[mikehalloran]

I didn’t even get into the various networking issues — but this guy does.

https://siber-sonic.com/mac/newmillfloppy.html

There may be a service or hobbyist out there somewhere who can extract the data. Long and short: Can it be done? Almost certainly. Who does it these days? I haven’t a clue.

[Ol'Geezer]

And the quest goes on....(thanks brother)...somewhere out there lives a geek ...

[mikehalloran]

And the quest goes on....(thanks brother)...somewhere out there lives a geek ...

i'd get the word out on https://forums.macrumors.com/. Yes, someone will tell you about Macintosh Garden where old copies of the OS and Performer can be downloaded but, since you don't have the hardware nor intend to look, just be polite and explain again what you want.

About 12 years ago, a friend emailed asking if I had an old SE30 around. As it turned out, I had put one out for recycling just that morning but, when I went outside to look, my e-waste pickup had come and gone. Her husband wrote and thanked me the next day.

[Ol'Geezer]

Funny you should mention Macintosh Garden, in my googling adventures I came up against that site and wondered, 'jeez just how many people in this world are still living Back to the Future? Good for them, too bad none nearby.

Good lead Mac...er...I mean Mike...