[Coco] Re: 8" drive to 5.25" replacement?

[Theodore A. Evans]

On 12/03/03, Roger Taylor wrote:
> Someone wrote me about a worn out 8" drive on a machine they use and
> wanted to emulate it by connecting the cable to their PC... :)
> 
> I told them it might be best to try to replace the drive with an older
> 5.25" drive that can do single-density mode. What I wanted to ask you guys
> is if the cables are compatible between 8" and 5.25" drives.

It is my understanding that the cabling is not a difficult issue
though the connectors are different.  The big issue that comes to mind
if they are trying to replace a single density 8" floppy drive is that
these drives spin at the same speed as a 5-1/4" in high density mode
(500 rpm) and use double the data rate of a 5-1/4" floppy., though of
course they use FM modulation for single density and MFM for double
density.  Basically an 8" DD floppy drive looks just like a 5-1/4" HD
floppy drive with only 77 tracks.

-- 
That was a wonderful date, Tom said in Dutch.
Theodore (Alex) Evans            | alxevans at concentric.net
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