Ah, nostalgia, thou art a heartless _______ (I’ll let you fill in the blank)!  It’s a cruel and devious mistress that can bring up both good memories (remember all the coolness that ensued with the advent of personal computing) and bad (I’m old and my back hurts) at the same time.

Bad memories aside, it was 1978 when Apple Computer, Inc. released their Disk II 5.25-inch floppy disk drive.  For those of us growing up at that time, it was a brave new world that changed everything forever.

The cycle of technology being what it is, 5.25-inch disks were quickly replaced by other more advanced options and these works of art in plastic and metal were relegated to the dark corners of closets everywhere.

Flash forward more than thirty-five years and maker option8 (a.k.a. Charles Mangin) has resurrected the Apple Disk II – albeit in a somewhat smaller guise – and made it practical for the 21st century.  Mr. Mangin’s 3D-printed case hearkens back to those days of yore but pop the hood and you’ll discover a modern twist:  a fully-functional SD Card reader.

Mr. Mangin has been kind enough to post the design for his 3D-printed Apple Disk II SD Card reader case to Thingiverse.com where you can download plans and print one for yourself.  Just be aware that the SD Card reader doesn’t print with the case; it has to be purchased separately – any USB SD Card reader will do.  You can also upload the plans to Sculpteo or Shapeways and let them print it for you.  Don’t want to wait that long?  You can purchase a complete assembled and painted version from Shapeways or etsy.com.

So get a healthy dose of nostalgia each and every time you need to save something and put this anachronism back to work. And just image if you combine it with the Raspberry-Pi-Case looking like an Apple II…