Advice on retrieving information from Amstrad 3286 floppy/HDD?

eezarthegreat

Hi all,

Wondering if someone could help. I'm trying to retrieve information, nothing of value (just sentimental stuff) from a Amstrad 3286 floppy/HDD.

The last time the floppy disk was accessed, through a relatively modern PC, it popped up asking to be formatted - so there's certainly a trick to regaining control over the devices. I haven't tried to plug the HDD into anything, but I'd imagine it would cough up a similar problem.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated

Simple Computers

It is very old system. Floppy disk after that long time could be damaged. I suggest you to try connect you HDD to PC and see if it works. Not sure what file system was implemented in Amstrad 3286 but as it was a PC files should be readable by modern PC.

Alun

I'm fairly sure that the HDD's in machines from that era predate the introduction of IDE drives, and is probably an MFM or RLL drive, so to even think about getting any data off it you'd need to find a suitable controller card from somewhere first. The only problem is that even if you do manage to find one gathering dust somewhere in a computer museum it will probably be an ISA card, so you'd also need to track down a PC with an ISA slot to plug it into, which ain't going to be an easy thing to find these days.

On the plus side, if you can get to the stage of being able to physically read the disk itself, then you should be home and dry as even the most modern PC can still read the FAT file system which would almost certainly have been used on this HDD.

As for the floppy, these do degrade with time especially if they've been stored in less than ideal conditions, especially damp, but there's also a possibility that Amstrad had some weird non-standard format they used which a modern PC may not support.

eezarthegreat

Alun wrote: »

I'm fairly sure that the HDD's in machines from that era predate the introduction of IDE drives, and is probably an MFM or RLL drive, so to even think about getting any data off it you'd need to find a suitable controller card from somewhere first. The only problem is that even if you do manage to find one gathering dust somewhere in a computer museum it will probably be an ISA card, so you'd also need to track down a PC with an ISA slot to plug it into, which ain't going to be an easy thing to find these days.

On the plus side, if you can get to the stage of being able to physically read the disk itself, then you should be home and dry as even the most modern PC can still read the FAT file system which would almost certainly have been used on this HDD.

As for the floppy, these do degrade with time especially if they've been stored in less than ideal conditions, especially damp, but there's also a possibility that Amstrad had some weird non-standard format they used which a modern PC may not support.

Thank you very much for that reply. If I was to link a few photos, could you take a look and possibly confirm for me? I'd really appreciate it if you could

eezarthegreat

Simple Computers wrote: »

It is very old system. Floppy disk after that long time could be damaged. I suggest you to try connect you HDD to PC and see if it works. Not sure what file system was implemented in Amstrad 3286 but as it was a PC files should be readable by modern PC.

Thanks for that, it's great to get feedback so quickly

Alun

If you can take a photo of the label on the hard disk then it should be a simple matter to find out the specifications online. But like I said, getting hold of a suitable controller for it may be pretty difficult. Actually it wasn't unusual back then to even have disks that would only work with one specific make and model of controller card.

eezarthegreat

Here's a snap of the top with the connectors on show if anyone could confirm the details above. Apologies for the ****ty quality

eezarthegreat

2 better pictures showing the top and the relative codes:

degsie

Looks like a standard 40 pin ide connector along with molex power connector.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmg0q_IlOd8

Alun

Yes, you're in luck, it's an early Maxtor IDE drive, so should be OK to connect to either an on board ATA connector on the motherboard if you have one, or a USB ATA adapter. I thought that Amstrad was an earlier model than what it appears to be.

eezarthegreat

degsie wrote: »

Looks like a standard 40 pin ide connector along with molex power connector.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmg0q_IlOd8

Alun wrote: »

Yes, you're in luck, it's an early Maxtor IDE drive, so should be OK to connect to either an on board ATA connector on the motherboard if you have one, or a USB ATA adapter. I thought that Amstrad was an earlier model than what it appears to be.

Thank you very much for all that guys. I'll shoot this thread a message when I make some progress. Really appreciate your time and feedback