Watch a Macintosh read a 5.25-inch floppy via a rare DaynaFile device from the 1980s

By Oliver Haslam
published

Daynafile Macintosh
Daynafile Macintosh

What you need to know

  • The DaynaFile was designed to make it possible to connect PC-formatted 5.25-inch disks to a Macintosh.
  • In this video it was connected to a Macintosh PowerBook 1400 via SCSI.
  • And sure enough, it worked.

Sometimes the most mundane of things can turn out to be one of the most interesting things you'll do all day. And watching a Macintosh read a 5.25-inch floppy disk definitely falls into that category today. And it was all made possible by the DaynaFile.

You've probably never heard of the DaynaFile, but it was an accessory that was built for the Macintosh in the late 1980s. Its purpose was to add external disk drives to the computer, whether that was a 3.5-inch drive or a 5.25-inch one. And some, like the one in this video, had both. That's like two Christmasses coming at once!

I'm not going to spoil the fun of watching the video for you, so check it out for yourselves. It's only a few minutes long and includes more nostalgia than I thought I could ever ask for on a gloomy Monday.

Enjoy!

If you want to know more about the DaynaFile you can even read the manual on the internet!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.