I need to access data on old 5.25 floppies. If I put an old 5.25 floppy drive in a small external enclosure with a power supply, how do I get the data from that unit to the main computer? Or am I going about this the wrong way? I don't want to mount the drive in the main computer (1) beacuse there are no free drive bays and (2) I still might want to access 5.25 floppy data if and when I upgrade the main computer.

I am not sure that would work. The enclosures I know of have an IDE controller. Floppy's are controlled by the Floppy Drive Controller. I looked at a few places and did not see what you are looking for. I would guess there is not much of a demand for a 5.25 floppy enclosure. You can buy a usb 3.5" drive for about $30. If no one knows of one, it would probably be easiest (and cheapest) to install the drive temporarily. Unplug the power from one drive and connect the 5.25. You can run with it with the floppy on top of the case - you really do not need to use a drive bay if you are careful. I have done this many times with no problems. Copy all the 5.25's to 3.5's or to a cd, if you have a cd writer. Then you will have them for future use.

I think you are making life difficult for yourself. a) is it possible to use a dual 3.5"/5.25" drive which uses just one bay? b) if it must go in an external box, i) can you extend one of the psu supplies to power it? ii)can you extend the existing fdd interface cable for data transfer? Normally this cable has 4 connectors (3.5" A: + B:/5.25" A: + B:) but only 2 are used. One can obtain quite lengthy ones if required - sometimes found in full size towers. Good luck - Keep us posted.

I'm avoiding installing a 5.25 floppy temporarily because it's a hassle. Plugging in a USB device would be sooooo much easier. But, yes, I could do a temporary install or put the drive on top of the cabinet and have cables hanging out the back end. I haven't done a wholesale transfer to CDs because there are a lot of floppies. It would be nice to do it, but there never seems to be time. So I just transfer as needed. That's why a USB, or firewire, or some other "just plug it in" solution would be so wonderful. Do the very common USB external 3.5 drives use the same floppy controller that the 5.25 used? If so, might I buy (1) 5.25 floppy drive, (2) 5.25 external enclosure designed for an IDE drive, and (3) a 3.5 USB external floppy and cobble them together? Don't be too technical in your response. I'm operating right on the limits of my knowledge. :-)

You could try this: Remove the CD drive temporarily Install the 5-1/4 floppy Copy all the floppies to individual folders on the hard drive Swap the CD drive back in Burn all of this data to one CD or a bunch of 3-1/2 floppies.