macOS & 3.5" Floppies

[flatlander48]

I understand that Apple killed OS support for floppies long ago. However, are there any modern day solutions for Catalina, Big Sur or Monterey? The reason is that I have a ton of ancient software that I want to archive...

 

[Feartech]

I understand that Apple killed OS support for floppies long ago. However, are there any modern day solutions for Catalina, Big Sur or Monterey? The reason is that I have a ton of ancient software that I want to archive...

maybe a usb floppy drive?

 

[Middleman]

I understand that Apple killed OS support for floppies long ago. However, are there any modern day solutions for Catalina, Big Sur or Monterey? The reason is that I have a ton of ancient software that I want to archive...

As far as I know you can still run floppies on maCOS. Sierra is probably the version that still has some good functions for this.

If you want a solution to work with older floppy drives (with particulars to archiving older disks), may I suggest also the use of a Kryoflux adapter? > https://kryoflux.com

This is an adapter (and proprietary software) used by much of the retro computing community to archive their older data to a modern system (I have one myself), as it allows for use of much older drives like 5.25", tape drives as well as 84-track 3.5"IDE drives, since modern 3.5"USB floppy drives can only read up to 79-80 tracks. Also unlike USB controllers the IDE controller allows for better control and copying (or bypassing) of copy protections on older disks.
You could probably still pick up good quality vintage floppy drives on eBay. Chinon and Epson are good brands to go far as well as HP and Sony (for PC/Apple).

You'd also be in need of a good floppy drive head cleaner when dealing with old disks (remember those?). Luckily Amazon still sells them > https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0028B7138/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[flatlander48]

maybe a usb floppy drive?

Yes, I have a USB floppy drive but Catalina doesn't see it...