About Us

Device Side Data develops and sells innovative computing accessories.

The FC5025 USB 5.25" floppy controller

Device Side Data's flagship product is the FC5025 USB 5.25" floppy controller. The FC5025 plugs into any computer's USB port and enables you to attach a 5.25" floppy drive. Even if your computer has no built-in floppy controller, the FC5025 lets you read those old disks. And it's not just for IBM PC disks – it also understands formats used by Apple, Atari, Commodore and TI, among others.

Where to buy

Customers in the United States may order online with a credit card. Those in other countries or wishing to use other payment methods, please contact us by email.

News

Feburary 28th, 2024: Online ordering was unavailable this morning due to a provider outage. It is working again now.

May 19th, 2021: We fixed a problem that was preventing some customers with the latest version of Google Chrome from ordering online.

March, 2020: Orders may be delayed due to the COVID-19 situation. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

September 7th, 2017: The existing drivers have been tested on MacOS Sierra 10.12.6. No update is necessary.

May 18th, 2015: Today is the 5.25th anniversary of our product launch! Thanks to all our customers for continuing to make Device Side Data a success.

March 19th, 2013: Updated drivers are available for download. The new drivers add support for Windows 8 64-bit. Older operating systems are also still supported. The new drivers have several other improvements, including support for Motorola VersaDOS disks and improved support for North Star MDS disks.

December 19th, 2012: Enclosures are out of stock again. It will be several months before we have more. We still have plenty of controllers and power supplies available.

October 22nd, 2012: Enclosures are back in stock.

December 22nd, 2011: Updated drivers are available for download. The new drivers run natively on Windows 7 64-bit and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Older operating systems are also still supported. The new drivers have several other improvements, including support for PMC MicroMate and Tandy Color Computer disks.

April 4th, 2011: Updated drivers are available for download. The new drivers have several improvements, including support for Kaypro 2 and Calcomp Vistagraphics 4500 disks.

November 18th, 2010: In addition to the controller, we are now also selling an external drive enclosure and a tabletop power supply.

July 2nd, 2010: Updated drivers are available for download. The new drivers fix a problem with copying files from MS-DOS disks in the GUI, add support for Kaypro 4 CP/M 2.2 disks, and improve the speed of some disk image operations.

February 18th, 2010: The FC5025 is now shipping! Also, the specifications are now more detailed.

December 2009: More information on the FC5025 is now available, including hardware photos and software screenshots.

Previous Events

W6TRW swap meet, January 27th, 2007

Attendees to this electronics and ham radio swap meet were invited to bring disks and have image copies made (read the announcement).

Vintage Computer Festival, November 4th and 5th, 2006

At the Vintage Computer Festival, a prototype of the floppy controller was shown reading Apple 5.25" disks on a PC.

Contact

Comments, questions and suggestions are welcome at  . Gmail users: If you have not received a reply to your email within one business day, please check your junk folder.