External HD Floppy

jmmijo · 05 January 2002, 04:33

I moved my Chinon FB-357a out of the internal drive bay. I replaced it with 2 Sony 720K floppys, had to jumper them for DF0: and DF1: but that worked out great and the drives now work just fine. The two reasons for replacing the HD drive were:

1) The drive was having trouble reading almost any disk, best reads were of the original WB disks.

2) This freakin drive is so tall that it take up about more then one slot in the 3.5" drive bay.

So I'm thinking the drive needs to be cleaned and I also noticed that the spring mechanism that pushes the floppy down onto the drive spindle motor is week. This could really be the entire problem although the drive was pretty dusty and needed to be cleaned out as well.

So, I connected the drive into an external floppy case and connected it to my 4000, it shows up as DF2: as it should. But of course it's only showing up as a standard 880k floppy drive. Is there any way to make this drive be recognized as both an 880k and a 1760k drive? Should I just give up and get the Catweasel Zorro card and use standard PC floppys instead? I'm even thinking of the LS-120 drive as this will also read and write the older DD and HD formats.

Thanks for your help.

//admin: please don't use direct signature in your post, configure your UserCP instead.

RetroMan · 05 January 2002, 21:50

Hmmm, I cannot tell about the 4000er but I just moved a HD Drive into a standart 1200er and it also only show up as 880KB drive .... but when u insert a HD floppy, it will ask to format 1,76MB so it´s all well .... and I don´t use anything else than WB 3.1, no drivers or extra software, so maybe it´s been recognized but it won´t show you until you put in a HD Floppy ?? Just a guess .....

jmmijo · 06 January 2002, 01:21

Well I tried that but it still only format's up to 880k. Yes I made sure it was an HD disk and that the second hole is not covered.

Oh well, it's just as well as I use a null-modem cable to transfer most of the files from a PC over to the Amiga. Hopefully I'll be able to get one of the X-Surf nic's shortly. That would resolve it all as I have a nice LAN setup in my house.

Also I may just get one of the Catweasel/Bhudda ZII cards as well as I could then connect an LS-120 and/or Zip and use those as well. The LS-120 would be better anyway as it also reads/writes the DD/HD formats as well.

05 January 2002, 04:33	#1
jmmijo Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: PDX Age: 62 Posts: 2,395	External HD Floppy I moved my Chinon FB-357a out of the internal drive bay. I replaced it with 2 Sony 720K floppys, had to jumper them for DF0: and DF1: but that worked out great and the drives now work just fine. The two reasons for replacing the HD drive were: 1) The drive was having trouble reading almost any disk, best reads were of the original WB disks. 2) This freakin drive is so tall that it take up about more then one slot in the 3.5" drive bay. So I'm thinking the drive needs to be cleaned and I also noticed that the spring mechanism that pushes the floppy down onto the drive spindle motor is week. This could really be the entire problem although the drive was pretty dusty and needed to be cleaned out as well. So, I connected the drive into an external floppy case and connected it to my 4000, it shows up as DF2: as it should. But of course it's only showing up as a standard 880k floppy drive. Is there any way to make this drive be recognized as both an 880k and a 1760k drive? Should I just give up and get the Catweasel Zorro card and use standard PC floppys instead? I'm even thinking of the LS-120 drive as this will also read and write the older DD and HD formats. Thanks for your help. //admin: please don't use direct signature in your post, configure your UserCP instead.

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05 January 2002, 21:50	#2
RetroMan Registered User Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Germany Age: 51 Posts: 3,704	Hmmm, I cannot tell about the 4000er but I just moved a HD Drive into a standart 1200er and it also only show up as 880KB drive .... but when u insert a HD floppy, it will ask to format 1,76MB so it´s all well .... and I don´t use anything else than WB 3.1, no drivers or extra software, so maybe it´s been recognized but it won´t show you until you put in a HD Floppy ?? Just a guess .....

06 January 2002, 01:21	#3
jmmijo Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: PDX Age: 62 Posts: 2,395	Well I tried that but it still only format's up to 880k. Yes I made sure it was an HD disk and that the second hole is not covered. Oh well, it's just as well as I use a null-modem cable to transfer most of the files from a PC over to the Amiga. Hopefully I'll be able to get one of the X-Surf nic's shortly. That would resolve it all as I have a nice LAN setup in my house. Also I may just get one of the Catweasel/Bhudda ZII cards as well as I could then connect an LS-120 and/or Zip and use those as well. The LS-120 would be better anyway as it also reads/writes the DD/HD formats as well.

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