Floppy Drive

Hi Tom

I am not sure but I think that is the one also used by HP in the HP 9121 or 9122 driver. (plus minus 1981).

Is it the 3 and a 1/4 " drive?

The HP drives were used by the HP 150 (XT)

I made a small program to read and write those on a normal 1.44 drive.

Maybe I am wrong about the 3 - 1/4 but they are for sure not pin compatible with later models.

Don't know where you're from, but if you can find anyone in the area who deals with 'scrapped' PCs, or a place that sells refurb'd ones, you should be able to pick up something for pennies.

Any old floppy drive will do - they're basically all the same.

If you really want a new one, have a look here - but I suspect the carriage will cost more than the drive (£6 (that's UKL)).

If these things are really 'special', I'm standing here with egg all over my face .

You said ' fairly old ' - which I took to mean about the age of the one before the one before I sent for recycling - sorry if I gave you a bum steer, but maybe it's time for a new PC (even an old new one).

Hi Tom and John

I opened one of the HP drives and found a Sony 3.5 MFD in there. They did not become the standard.

Maybe you after all can use any drive.

Can you post a picture please?

Hello Tom Sweeney

If the floppy disk you use fits a standard 3+¹/₂ inch floppy drive,(refer picture at left, with the floppy disk associated) then all you need to do is obtain a replacement floppy drive from any computer shop.

The floppy drives are standard dimensions, but you may have to remove the front plate of the replacement floppy drive and fit the one from your old machine.

The changing over of front plates normally takes around 30 seconds, perhaps a few minutes if you've never done it.

If you were unsure what you were doing, see your local PC repair shop, they should be able to do the changeover for around $30 including the cost of replacement floppy drive.

If, however, your 'floppy drive' is the 5+¹/₄ inch type, (see larger picture at left with the floppy disk associated), these are no longer made, have not been made for some 25+ years, and you would be advised to shift to a standard 3+¹/₂ inch floppy drive, and copy the program from the old floppy disk to a 3+¹/₂ inch floppy drive disk.

For that you will need to locate a working "B" type 5+¹/₄ inch floppy drive,. and connect that on the "B" Drive connection inside your Computer.

If in doubt, it's always best to obtain local advice and help, before damaging something.

There were a third type, as the last picture shows.

Because we don't actually know which type of floppy disk/floppy drive you presently have, could you please advise further.

Reply here, with

I still have one of those big floopy drives from my first Macintosh computer I believe it is in the side porch storage.

You know that drive has to same plugs as a C D drive does. If he could add plug and play to his unit he could switch to a cd. It may have plug and play on it.

If you swicth to a smaller drive I hope your softeware disk will allow you to copy it to the smaller 3.5's.

But if you head off in the direction why not copy it to a C D and use a cd cdrive.

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone for the time & trouble you have taken on this. I have only had time for a quick read. I will come back with an update later.

Regards,

Tom

Hi all,

The drive is a 3.5 inch, 1991 vintage. I did think that any 3.5in drive would do, but the original disc is double sided formatted DOS 720KB, which I have been told was only in use for a short time before going to 1.44MB & therin apparently lies the problem. If it was a computer I could upgrade but that is not an option on the Moulding machine,

Regards,

Tom

Aha! Sorry for the duff info - I (and I suspect others) misinterpreted 'moulding' as being a description of your PC! .

Do you have a manual (incl. circuit diagrams) for the machine? Does it have any kind of embedded PC?

Hi JohnDG,

Sorry, probably my fault for not being clear about the moulding machine. There is an embedded PLC control system. The machine was manufactured by "Boy Company". There is a manual but I am not at the factory, so I will have to look it out on my next visit.

Regards,

Tom

Here's a link to someone on Craigslist that says they have 3.5" drives for sale that can be configured as 720K.

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/sys/823169344.html

Considering how cheap you can get a regular 1.44MB drive, have you tried one of those yet? The 1.44MB drives are/were capable of reading/writing to 720K disks.

If you have to use a true 720K drive, I fear you may end up paying big for it, I'm sure they are hard to come by these days, good luck!

I assume you have tried a search on the exact model of drive that's currently in the machine?

Tom

Yes, I've tried a 1.44MB. Didn't work. I had a look at the graigslist link, which looks promising.

The manufacturer's were no help I'm afraid.

Thanks for all the info

Regards

Tom

Contact the Manufacturer and see what they are using now. See if they can retrofit your unit.

The 720 x 3.5 floppies (Stiffie in SA) only had one slider (write enable/disable) while the 1.44 has an additional one on the opposite side. This is used to tell the drive that it is a 720 or 1.44.

Closing the normally open hole with masking tape then enables 720 mode. I am using taped 1.44's in a 720 driver with success.

On DOS (Disk Operating System) the size and format specifications is written in the boot record. In the 70's and 80's some however used there own formatting specifications. HP for example used 256 byte records instead of the 512 byte used by DOS. Another trick HP did was to have a counter on the disk that disabled the floppy after a predefined number of accesses.

Some of the drives were jumper selectable between 720 and 1.44.

here is a 3.5 disk reader

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/58-11030

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/58-11030

Panasonic JU-253-403P?

Would a Panasonic JU-A256198PC WORK ?

THERE IS ONE ON EBAY -- http://computers.shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_dmptZPCCQ5fDrivesQ5fStorageQ5fInternal?_nkw=3.5&_sacat=169&_fromfsb=0&_trksid=m270.l1313

Some 5.25 drives on ebay too

http://computers.shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_fromZR46?_nkw=5%2C25&_sacat=169&_fromfsb=0&_trksid=m270.l1313