[Coco] STATUS - Re: Resurrecting a CoCo (26-3001) with a26-3029 FDC.

[Bruce W. Calkins]

>I mean that the cable is on correct, the drive light and motor turn on 
>after I press ENTER when entering DSKINI0 to format the diskette.  The 
>drive proceeds to spin the disk and move the head for about 35 track 
>adjustments then makes a normal type of I am not going to complete my  job 
>grind noise, and then I get the ?IO ERROR message.
Right, the first pass writes formatting information to the disk.  Then it 
steps back to the start and tries to read what it wrote.  Since it can't you 
get a I/O ERROR.

> Unfortunately I do not have an already formatted CoCo diskette.  I  will 
> have to setup an older 386 / 486 / Pentium class board and case  to see if 
> these drives actually work,
Well a rare Pentium 2 or 3 class machine will have 5.25" floppy support.  It 
is a BIOS issue more than anything else.

> but from your interpretation, I likely have to do something with the FDC. 
> I have read about the need  to replace the 7416 with 7406.
Another controller for testing might help.

Are you in Canada by any chance?

Bruce W.