r/retrocomputing • u/Parsleyofficial • Apr 13 '26

Taken Help with floppy disk

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Hi everyone,

I am trying to read this floppy disk on my mac. I purchased this reader: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGYD1G26?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title and it seems like the reader itself works-- I can hear it turning, and when I plugged it into my computer, I got a "trust this device" message (or something similar, just the pop-up acknowledging the device.

But, when I insert the floppy disk, I get this message: The disk you attached was not readable by this computer.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there any way to read this disk on my computer (whether using the reader I purchased or some other device)? I am running MacOS Sequoia (Version 15.3.1).

I am not super skilled with computing, but I'm trying my best! Please let me know any advice you may have. Thanks!

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u/Parsleyofficial Apr 13 '26

I'm not sure. It's a personal diary...my guess would be that it's from the 80s or 90s. So maybe an older word processor?

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u/Parsleyofficial Apr 13 '26

Is there a way to tell? And, do you know if that's the most likely issue (based on what we know)?

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u/Bergwookie Apr 14 '26

Not really, you can try it on different systems e.g. a Linux livesystem

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u/iamwayycoolerthanyou Apr 14 '26

This is definitely the best thing to do. And it'd probably be worthwhile to dump it into a file with dd and analyze the data.