A question about Amiga External Slimline HD Floppy

AwoLStill · 24 January 2018, 19:29

A question about Amiga External Slimline HD Floppy.

Something I remembered last night, many moons ago I had lots of disk drives, one of which was an External slimline DSHD (high density) Floppy Disk drive, the drive itself was an IBM laptop external floppy disk drive, and I cannot remember which model it was.

The eject button was painfully small (and red, if memory serves) but the drive itself was metal cased and quite sharp fronted.

Anyone remember which IBM drive it was, or have one lying around?

- I'd like to know the "FRU" number that should be on one of the labels on the drive itself ideally, see if I can source one...

mark_k · 24 January 2018, 19:34

Check this thread: IBM/Teac external floppy - modding possible?

The drive itself would (if it works like the others) have been modified for Amiga HD use.

AwoLStill · 24 January 2018, 19:37

yeah just found that one! cheers

AwoLStill · 24 January 2018, 19:39

Question moved, cheers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_k

IBM/Teac external floppy - modding possible?

nogginthenog · 24 January 2018, 20:16

I had one. Think it was called a Power Computing drive. Slim drive with a blue (IBM) eject button. Could read HD disks (at half speed) fine but needed a software patch to write.

AwoLStill · 24 January 2018, 22:05

Yeah I think that could well be a different version of the same one from the same supplier, as it most likely was Power Computing that it came from, but the eject button on mine was definitely red and more bladelike than your average eject button, and definitely not the "lilac" of more modern IBM equipment.

The drive I am on about is the same as the one I had in an IBM laptop
- when I worked for IBM - I was employed by an agency and contracted to IBM from early 2001 to late 2003 as a customer retail engineer, covering "Cumbria" (Which apparently included Cumnock in East Ayrshire and Sandbach in Cheshire, as well as printers, high volume printers, ePoS, desktop, etc and everything in between..)

The first two years there were fantastic...

Pretty sure you are bang-on about it needing a patch to be able to write too, although I had forgotten that.

nogginthenog · 25 January 2018, 19:51

Did you work with IBM mainframes? Back when I was a kid I did some work experience for the Wellcome Foundation in Dartford. They had lots of very expensive IBM kit. It's a housing estate these days. I dread to think how polluted that place is...

I was offered the chance to do some computer based training. One of the courses was very interesting - REXX programming

AwoLStill · 25 January 2018, 21:34

Saw a load of them in a datacentre to the west of London..
- but because I was a retail engineer rather than enterprise, I spent most of my time dealing with EPoS, or supporting kit from other manufacturers that IBM Global Services had the contract to support.
To be fair, most of it was fairly hands on, board swap level stuff typically, very little more than that.
There's undoubtedly loads I cannot comment on for reasons of NDA

One thing I can say, in 2001 I passed IBM Netfinity Hardware Repair & Problem Determination - which was interesting.
x-Series servers with redundant RAID.
(Redundant cards and cabling connected to the same RAID array(s).)

I also learn't:
"Those orange coloured slots ARE NOT ORANGE! - they are terracotta!"

(Those "orange" slots are the hot-swap ones. Useful with redundant RAID when you need to swap a failed RAID controller card while the server is still running and online...)

nogginthenog · 25 January 2018, 22:10

I work in west London writing hotel software. Not sure if we support IBM EPOS but we probably do. I generally work on the front end side of things but most of the back end stuff was originally written by me.

Got a request for an AS/400 interface last week.

AwoLStill · 25 January 2018, 22:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by nogginthenog

Got a request for an AS/400 interface last week.

- that's GOT TO BE preferable to 4690!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4690_Operating_System

24 January 2018, 19:29	#1
AwoLStill Registered User Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Gloucester Posts: 83	A question about Amiga External Slimline HD Floppy A question about Amiga External Slimline HD Floppy. Something I remembered last night, many moons ago I had lots of disk drives, one of which was an External slimline DSHD (high density) Floppy Disk drive, the drive itself was an IBM laptop external floppy disk drive, and I cannot remember which model it was. The eject button was painfully small (and red, if memory serves) but the drive itself was metal cased and quite sharp fronted. Anyone remember which IBM drive it was, or have one lying around? - I'd like to know the "FRU" number that should be on one of the labels on the drive itself ideally, see if I can source one...

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24 January 2018, 19:34	#2
mark_k Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Posts: 3,333	Check this thread: IBM/Teac external floppy - modding possible? The drive itself would (if it works like the others) have been modified for Amiga HD use.

24 January 2018, 19:37	#3
AwoLStill Registered User Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Gloucester Posts: 83	yeah just found that one! cheers

24 January 2018, 20:16	#5
nogginthenog Amigan Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: London Posts: 1,309	I had one. Think it was called a Power Computing drive. Slim drive with a blue (IBM) eject button. Could read HD disks (at half speed) fine but needed a software patch to write.

24 January 2018, 22:05	#6
AwoLStill Registered User Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Gloucester Posts: 83	Yeah I think that could well be a different version of the same one from the same supplier, as it most likely was Power Computing that it came from, but the eject button on mine was definitely red and more bladelike than your average eject button, and definitely not the "lilac" of more modern IBM equipment. The drive I am on about is the same as the one I had in an IBM laptop - when I worked for IBM - I was employed by an agency and contracted to IBM from early 2001 to late 2003 as a customer retail engineer, covering "Cumbria" (Which apparently included Cumnock in East Ayrshire and Sandbach in Cheshire, as well as printers, high volume printers, ePoS, desktop, etc and everything in between..) The first two years there were fantastic... Pretty sure you are bang-on about it needing a patch to be able to write too, although I had forgotten that.

25 January 2018, 19:51	#7
nogginthenog Amigan Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: London Posts: 1,309	Did you work with IBM mainframes? Back when I was a kid I did some work experience for the Wellcome Foundation in Dartford. They had lots of very expensive IBM kit. It's a housing estate these days. I dread to think how polluted that place is... I was offered the chance to do some computer based training. One of the courses was very interesting - REXX programming

25 January 2018, 21:34	#8
AwoLStill Registered User Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Gloucester Posts: 83	Saw a load of them in a datacentre to the west of London.. - but because I was a retail engineer rather than enterprise, I spent most of my time dealing with EPoS, or supporting kit from other manufacturers that IBM Global Services had the contract to support. To be fair, most of it was fairly hands on, board swap level stuff typically, very little more than that. There's undoubtedly loads I cannot comment on for reasons of NDA One thing I can say, in 2001 I passed IBM Netfinity Hardware Repair & Problem Determination - which was interesting. x-Series servers with redundant RAID. (Redundant cards and cabling connected to the same RAID array(s).) I also learn't: "Those orange coloured slots ARE NOT ORANGE! - they are terracotta!" (Those "orange" slots are the hot-swap ones. Useful with redundant RAID when you need to swap a failed RAID controller card while the server is still running and online...)

25 January 2018, 22:10	#9
nogginthenog Amigan Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: London Posts: 1,309	I work in west London writing hotel software. Not sure if we support IBM EPOS but we probably do. I generally work on the front end side of things but most of the back end stuff was originally written by me. Got a request for an AS/400 interface last week.

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