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Specialist Floppy Disk Recovery

We recover data from 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks using dedicated professional equipment. From common home office disks to rare vintage computer formats.

Disks We Recover

All physical sizes, densities, and operating system formats.

3.5" Double Density (720 KB)

DS/DD • MFM encoding

Used on older MS-DOS machines, early Amiga computers, and Atari ST systems. Often encountered in institutional archives from the late 1980s.

3.5" High Density (1.44 MB)

DS/HD • MFM encoding

The most common floppy type. Found in nearly all PC and Mac equipment from 1990 onwards. Also used as boot media in older servers.

5.25" Double Density (360 KB)

DS/DD • MFM/FM encoding

Common in early IBM PC, Apple II, and Commodore machines. Often found in industrial CNC controllers from the 1980s and early 1990s.

5.25" High Density (1.2 MB)

DS/HD • MFM encoding

Used in IBM PC/AT machines and later PC compatibles. Still in active use in aviation, medical equipment, and factory automation systems.

The Recovery Process

Every disk is treated as potentially unique. We do not rush the read.

  1. Step 1

    You Post Your Disks

    Place disks in a padded envelope (bubble mailer) and post to us. Do not use paper envelopes or expose disks to magnets. We will email a confirmation on receipt.

  2. Step 2

    Physical Inspection

    We examine the shell for cracks, the shutter mechanism, the magnetic surface under magnification, and check for mould or oxide shedding. Damaged media is assessed for pre-treatment before any read attempt.

  3. Step 3

    Low-Level Read

    Using dedicated professional hardware and software, we extract a raw flux image from the disk. This captures the full magnetic state of the surface, including non-standard sector layouts, copy protections, and weak bits.

  4. Step 4

    Decoding & Validation

    The flux image is decoded into a usable format. We verify sector checksums and report any unrecoverable sectors. You receive a recovery report alongside your files.

  5. Step 5

    Delivery & Secure Deletion

    Files are delivered via encrypted download link or posted on a USB drive. Original disks are returned if requested. All data is deleted from our systems within 30 days.

Vintage Computer Platforms

Non-standard sector layouts and proprietary encodings are our speciality.

Commodore 64 / 128

1541, 1571, 1581 drive formats. GCR encoding. Output as .d64, .d71, .d81.

Amiga (500 / 600 / 1200)

880 KB OFS/FFS AmigaDOS disks. MFM with Amiga-specific timing. Output as .adf.

Atari ST / STE / TT

Standard ATARI FAT and protected copy-locked disks. Output as .st, .msa, .stx.

Amstrad CPC

3-inch and 3.5-inch CPC formats. Vendor-specific sector IDs. Output as .dsk, .edsk.

ZX Spectrum / +3

Spectrum +3 and OPUS Discovery 3-inch formats. Output as .dsk, .edsk.

Apple II / IIe / IIgs

DOS 3.3, ProDOS, and protected titles. Output as .dsk, .nib, .woz.

DOS / Windows 9x

FAT12 PC disks, DMF distribution format, high-density 1.68 MB. Output as .img, .ima.

Other / Unknown Format

If your disk does not fit a known platform, we capture a full flux archive (.scp, .hfe) for later decoding.

Data Safety & Privacy

Chain-of-custody matters -- especially for business, legal, and archival clients.

GDPR Compliance

We are based in Ireland, operating under EU data protection law. Your files are processed and stored within Ireland. We do not transfer data to third-party servers or cloud services without your consent.

Secure Deletion

All recovered data is deleted from our storage within 30 days of delivery. Deletion is logged and available on request for compliance audits.

NDAs Available

For legal, government, and industrial clients with sensitive media, we offer a formal non-disclosure agreement before work begins.

Original Media Returned

Your physical disks are returned to you on request at no extra cost. We do not dispose of or reuse client media.

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