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Industrial & Business-Critical Floppy Recovery

When a machine is down because a floppy disk has failed, every hour matters. Priority service with 48-hour turnaround, NDA, and chain-of-custody documentation.

Equipment We Support

Floppy disks remain in active use across a wide range of industrial and specialist systems.

CNC Machines & Lathes

Fanuc, Siemens, Mitsubishi, and Okuma controllers commonly store toolpaths and parameter files on 3.5" or 5.25" floppy disks. A failed disk can halt production entirely. We recover the disk image and deliver it in a format compatible with hardware floppy emulators so the machine returns to operation.

Medical Devices

Older diagnostic equipment, ultrasound machines, and laboratory instruments often rely on floppy-based calibration or software load media. We handle these with full confidentiality and GDPR-compliant processing within Ireland.

Avionics & Defence

Legacy avionics ground support equipment and some certified on-board systems still use 3.5" or 5.25" floppy media. We can work under NDA and provide full chain-of-custody documentation suitable for audit and regulatory purposes.

Industrial Automation

PLCs, robotic controllers, and process automation systems from the 1990s and 2000s frequently store firmware and configuration on floppy disks. We recover standard MFM/FM-encoded formats as well as proprietary vendor formats.

Textile & Embroidery Machines

Barudan, Tajima, Pfaff, and other industrial embroidery and textile machines use 3.5" floppy disks to load design patterns. We recover the disk and deliver in a format compatible with the original machine or modern design software.

PCB & Board Fabrication

Gerber data, drill files, and board layout programs for older fabrication equipment are commonly stored on floppy media. We recover and convert to modern formats for re-use in updated tooling workflows.

Industrial Recovery Process

Faster turnaround, the same careful approach.

  1. Step 1

    Contact Us First

    Send us a message or call before posting the disk. We will confirm the media type, output format requirements, and whether an NDA is needed before any work begins. For emergencies, call directly — we can often begin same day.

  2. Step 2

    NDA & Chain-of-Custody (If Required)

    For sensitive operations, we sign an NDA before receiving the media. A chain-of-custody log is started at this point. The log records every person who handles the disk from receipt through delivery and can be provided to you for audit or regulatory purposes.

  3. Step 3

    Priority Read

    Industrial disks are moved to the front of the queue. We perform a full low-level read using dedicated professional hardware, capturing the complete flux image of the disk surface. This preserves any non-standard sector layouts or vendor-specific encoding used by the original machine.

  4. Step 4

    Format Conversion for Your Equipment

    We deliver the recovered data in the format your equipment requires. For machines that use hardware floppy emulators (Gotek, HxC, USB-based), we deliver a .hfe or .img file ready to load. For systems requiring a physical disk to be written, we advise on the appropriate media and write process.

  5. Step 5

    Secure Delivery & Deletion

    Files are delivered via encrypted download link or on physical media by tracked post. All recovered data is deleted from our systems within 30 days. The chain-of-custody log is finalised and provided to you on request.

Service Commitments

What you can rely on for every industrial order.

48-Hour Rush Turnaround

Priority orders are worked immediately on receipt. We target 48 hours from disk arrival to delivery of recovered files. Contact us to confirm availability before sending for time-critical jobs.

NDA Available

We sign a formal non-disclosure agreement before receiving any sensitive media. Request the NDA template before sending your disks. No cost, no delay.

Chain-of-Custody Documentation

A full custody log is maintained for every industrial order: receipt, handling, read attempts, and delivery. The log is available to you for compliance, audit, or regulatory purposes.

GDPR-Compliant Processing

All media is processed within Ireland. Data does not leave the EU. We do not use cloud storage or third-party services without your explicit consent. Suitable for clients subject to GDPR, medical device regulations, or ISO audit requirements.

.HFE & Emulator-Ready Output

We deliver disk images in .hfe, .img, or .scp format compatible with Gotek, HxC, and other hardware floppy emulators. If your machine type is unusual, contact us and we will confirm the correct output format before starting.

Custom Quoting

Industrial and business-critical orders are quoted individually. Pricing depends on disk count, format complexity, turnaround requirement, and documentation needed. We respond to quote requests within one business day.

Common Industrial Disk Formats

If your format is not listed, contact us — we can assess from a flux image.

3.5" HD (1.44 MB) — Standard MFM

DS/HD • MFM encoding

The most common format in industrial equipment from the 1990s onward. Found in Fanuc 0i, Fanuc 21i, Siemens 840D, and many other CNC and automation controllers.

5.25" DD (360 KB) — Standard MFM/FM

DS/DD • MFM and FM encoding

Common in older industrial equipment from the 1980s and early 1990s. Requires specialist hardware — standard PC drives cannot reliably read these. We use dedicated 5.25" hardware for all reads.

Non-Standard / Proprietary Sector Layouts

Vendor-specific encoding

Many industrial machines write disks with non-standard sector counts, interleave values, or proprietary encoding. We capture a full flux image first, then decode. If the format is unknown, we can attempt decoding or deliver the raw flux file for your engineering team.

Copy-Protected Disks

Weak bits • Timing-dependent encoding

Some machine software and calibration disks use copy protection that a standard sector read will miss. Our flux-level capture preserves these signals, ensuring the recovered image behaves identically to the original disk.

Machine Down? Contact Us Now.

We respond to industrial enquiries within one business day. For emergencies, call directly.

Request Priority Quote