[cctalk] Re: Cambridge University Library

Fred Cisin via cctalk &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; writes: That's correct. The Amstrad-branded 3" drives that are common in the UK have a power connector that's wired backwards from the usual 3.5" standard, and a completely different pinout on the data connector. There's a picture of one here: https://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/3inch_floppy.html (The other useful thing to know about those drives is that the drive belt is the same size as a standard Royal Mail rubber band, so in a pinch you can ask your postman for a temporary replacement.) I did the same thing for Abertay University when I was working there in 2019, after the university's newly-appointed archivist approached the computer science department asking if anybody could help read some floppies he'd found. He went through the archives and found 30 floppies in total in various formats, all of which I managed to read using ImageDisk -- although for a couple of them I had to deliberately misalign a 5.25" drive. Abertay has about 4,000 students to Cambridge's 22,000, which works out at roughly the same number of archived disks per student... -- Adam Sampson &lt;ats(a)offog.org&gt; <http://offog.org/>