Amiga 4000 what is the bottom floppy bay for?

[Tchucolate]

Long story short. Bought a Gotek to go in the bottom floppy bay of an Amiga 4000, its lower in profile than the top bay, so had to get a custom bracket made for it.

Now thats installed, the Gotek fits in the exact space where the blanking plate was. But... I mounted it with the only screw holes at that hight, and.. now the original floppy drive cannot fit in the remaining space.

So, question, what was commodore up to with this smaller lower floppy bay, and what was the intention to get TWO floppy drives installed. Is there a lower profile 3.5" floppy I need to get to fit above the slimer bay, so they are then BOTH slim?

I can buy a slimmer drive (if they exist), but its likely to be a PC drive these days, so Id then need to convert it to an Amiga drive, right? This is turning out to be a major polava, BUT I would like to end up with real Floppy with Gotek below.

[lesta_smsc]

How about a GoDrive?

https://digitalretrobay.co.uk/digita...amiga-500-500/

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Tchucolate

So, question, what was commodore up to with this smaller lower floppy bay

The bays shouldn't be different size. I had no issues fitting two floppy drives in my A4000. It's more than 20 years ago already, but I just went into an Amiga shop, told them I'd like to have a second drive and they sold me one which looks exactly like the first one and they both fit perfectly into the two bays.

[Tchucolate]

Originally Posted by thomas

The bays shouldn't be different size. I had no issues fitting two floppy drives in my A4000. It's more than 20 years ago already, but I just went into an Amiga shop, told them I'd like to have a second drive and they sold me one which looks exactly like the first one and they both fit perfectly into the two bays.

Take a look at the photo below. The top A4000 has the original blanking plate and floppy drive. It looks like the floppy is one stripe larger than the blanking plate.

On the lower A4000 see how the floppy drive is one stripe thinner, and the blanking plate is actually larger. I dont think thats the original floppy drive, there, or the blanking plate, Im assuming its a 3D print.

So it looks like I need to get a new floppy drive, pale beige thats about 3.5mm smaller than the one I have, in terms of height. Odd eh?

[TjLaZer]

Some 4000’s have a full height floppy drive. Most have a normal height floppy (Chinon FZ-357A) which allows you to use the bottom slot.

[Locutus]

I have a 640MB Magneto-Optical drive in my lower 3.5" bay, just for obscurity points

[idrougge]

Older A4000s had extra tall floppy drives, they were later on switched for normal height drives so that two drives could be fitted at once, but apparently Chinon couldn’t deliver the custom Amiga HD floppy drives in that form factor from the beginning, so they were the same height as in the A3000.

[Calabazam]

Your problem is your floppy drive in A2000 like size. The A4000 has two standard 3,5' front bays. Mine has a standard 3,5' drive and a 3,5 USB hub.
Either replace the drive or replace the front cover of the drive it if it not a FB357A but a FZ357A with a FB type cover.
Some A4000 came with white FB357A (those for the A2000 are beige), and some others with FZ357A.

[Tchucolate]

Originally Posted by Calabazam

Your problem is your floppy drive in A2000 like size. The A4000 has two standard 3,5' front bays. Mine has a standard 3,5' drive and a 3,5 USB hub.
Either replace the drive or replace the front cover of the drive it if it not a FB357A but a FZ357A with a FB type cover.
Some A4000 came with white FB357A (those for the A2000 are beige), and some others with FZ357A.

Mine, as others have said, appears to have a taller floppy, so using the two bays is not possible as is. Luckily a UK vendor is selling new/old stock 2.54mm high drives, with pale beige fascias. So I ordered two as they were £11 each.

I may have to convert them to work on the A4000 as they almost certainly are PC ones. Anyway, we'll see.

Getting this working has been a total PITA. The vendor originally supplied me with a Gotek that was same size as the original floppy, but with mounting holes on the base of its bracket.
Issue 1. There are no bottom mounting holes in either A4000 bay
Issue 2. I told him it was for the bottom bay
Issue 3. He insisted I said it was for an A2000, which I obviously DID NOT say

So, instead of sucking up the cost for good customer relationships. He then insisted I pay for the replacement case AND remove the Gotek and re-fit it to the new case supplied.

I receive the new case, and... well, Ive had to hack off various bits to make it fit. And then I DO get it to fit, I mount the two drives in the bay cage, and attempt to put the fascia on, and discovered that the original floppy is a good 4mm to tall for both.

I'll get then in the end, its only taken 7 months

[Calabazam]

I don't understand your problem with mounting holes. There are more than enough mouting holes to fit anything in those bays in my A4000s.
If for some reason you have a problem with your disk cage, you can get a newly manufactured replacement part from Arymanx at Amibay.

[Liqourice]

A file to expand the holes to make it fit?

[Calabazam]

Ah i have just understood what you mean with bottom mounting holes. Indeed the drives in the A2000 are mounted on hexagonal metal spacers, then on the support metal plates behind the plastic front of the computer. There is no such thing in the A4000, which needs mounting holes from the side of the drives like any PC.
In that case, your seller did not provide what is necessary indeed.
I think the best thing to do is to ditch that annoying extra sized Chinon drive and use only regular 3,5' drives and you could use the two bays without problem.