Dad's C64 still works. What's the least painful way to get his old 5.25 floppies onto a modern PC?
Matt O'Brien@pi_tinker_matt
G'day retro legends. Bit out of my lane here, so be gentle.
My dad still has his C64C and a 1541-II drive in the garage, and about 60 floppies from the 80s. Most are games, but a handful are things he wrote in BASIC, and one is a recipe database Mum typed in over about two years. That one I really don't want to lose. He's 74 and keeps saying "it's all on the disks", and I keep picturing the disks.
What I've read so far:
- ZoomFloppy / XUM1541 to plug the real drive into a PC over USB
- Pi1541
- Something about cassette interfaces, which I don't think applies
Which way would you go? And is there anything I should do before I put 40 year old disks into a 35 year old drive so I don't wreck the only copy?
cheers, Matt
Accepted answer
Lovely question, Matt, and a recipe database typed in by your mum is exactly the kind of disk worth getting right.
Go with a ZoomFloppy (or any XUM1541 clone) and OpenCBM. It plugs the real 1541-II into your PC over USB. Pi1541 is the opposite direction: it pretends to be a drive for the C64, it can't read your real disks, so skip it for this job.
Once OpenCBM is installed:
cbmctrl detect (should report the 1541 on device 8)
cbmctrl dir 8 (lists the disk, a good first test)
d64copy 8 recipes.d64 (copies the whole disk to an image file)
Before any of that:
1. Clean the drive head. Isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud, gently, drive unplugged. 35 years of dust lives on that head.
2. Look at every disk under a torch before it goes in. Any white spots or fuzz is mould, and that disk does NOT go in the drive until the rest are done.
3. Do the important disk third or fourth, not first. Let the drive warm up and prove itself on a game you don't care about.
4. Image it twice and compare the files. If d64copy reports errors on a track, try again, then try with the disk at room temperature for a day.
Copy protected games may need nibtools rather than d64copy, but your dad's own BASIC and the recipes will be plain disks.
Cheers, Pete
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Peter Hughes@amiga_pete
Lovely question, Matt, and a recipe database typed in by your mum is exactly the kind of disk worth getting right.
Go with a ZoomFloppy (or any XUM1541 clone) and OpenCBM. It plugs the real 1541-II into your PC over USB. Pi1541 is the opposite direction: it pretends to be a drive for the C64, it can't read your real disks, so skip it for this job.
Once OpenCBM is installed:
cbmctrl detect (should report the 1541 on device 8)
cbmctrl dir 8 (lists the disk, a good first test)
d64copy 8 recipes.d64 (copies the whole disk to an image file)
Before any of that:
1. Clean the drive head. Isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud, gently, drive unplugged. 35 years of dust lives on that head.
2. Look at every disk under a torch before it goes in. Any white spots or fuzz is mould, and that disk does NOT go in the drive until the rest are done.
3. Do the important disk third or fourth, not first. Let the drive warm up and prove itself on a game you don't care about.
4. Image it twice and compare the files. If d64copy reports errors on a track, try again, then try with the disk at room temperature for a day.
Copy protected games may need nibtools rather than d64copy, but your dad's own BASIC and the recipes will be plain disks.
Cheers, Pete
Matt O'Brien@pi_tinker_matt
Pete, legend, thank you. ZoomFloppy ordered. Dad is weirdly excited that people on the internet care about his disks
Graham Whitfield@greybeard_graham
Pete has it. I would add: if the disks have been in a hot garage, bring them inside for a few days before you try. Sudden temperature changes and old media do not get along.
Cheers, G.
石川 亮@msx_ryo
フロッピーにカビがある場合は、絶対にドライブに入れないでください。ヘッドが汚れて、次のディスクも傷つけます。
If disk has mold, please never insert to drive. Head becomes dirty and damages next disk also. Please be careful ^^
Frank Ostrowski@frank_cpp98
The 1541 is notorious for alignment drift. If it reads your games fine but struggles on disks written on a different drive, that is alignment, not the disk. Do not let anyone talk you into realigning it yourself on day one. Regards.
Matt O'Brien@pi_tinker_matt
Update for anyone who finds this later: got 58 of 61 disks imaged. Two games had bad tracks, one disk was mouldy and I left it alone like you lot said. The recipe database came off clean on the first go and Mum cried a bit when we opened it in VICE. Thanks heaps everyone 🍓