[Coco] Floppy drive setup HELP!

[Darren A]

On 1/9/09, Fedor Steeman wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> For some time now, I have possessed several floppy drives, most 5.25" and
> two 3.5". I have been setting these up in different configurations and
> different cases from time to time, taking head of the drive number jumpers.
>
> Lately I have been trying set them up again, but I cannot get any of the
> (loose) 5.25" drives to work anymore! I try to have one 3.5" drive set up
> with one 5.25" drive with the latter being drive 1. I set the jumpers on the
> appropriate locations and connect the cable like I used to do. However,
> whenever there is a floppy in the 5.25" drive it just keeps on turning for
> no apparant reason. Whenever I try a DIR or a DSKINI I get an ?IO ERROR.
> Switching the drive numbers has no effect. The 3.5" drive works fine.
>
> Since this occurs for every 5.25" drive I try I suspect this may have
> something to do with the cable or jumper setup, but I have no idea what I am
> doing wrong. Does anyone have some tips? It would be greatly appreciated. I
> still have hundreds of old floppies I would like to save somehow.
>
> Cheers,
> Fedor

----

Does the cable have any connectors with "pulled teeth"? If so, these
will determine the allowed drive number for each position.

Termination could also be a problem. Only the last drive on the cable
(farthest from the CoCo) should have terminating resistors. Most 5.25
inch drives have a way to enable/disable termination, but very few 3.5
inch drives do. The usual choice is to disable termination on the
5..25 inch drive and put the 3.5 inch drive in the last position on
the cable.

Of course there is also the possibility that either the cable or the
controller is faulty.

Darren