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Author Topic: 5.25" disk drive  (Read 2962 times)

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5.25" disk drive
« on: March 25, 2003, 07:39:42 PM »
I now have a 5.25" disk drive for amiga and some blank or used 5.25" DD disks. The drive has a 80-40 switch on the back and I guess this switches between single and double side/density mode, right? I can't use or format any of the disks no matter which amigaos version I try. Are there any important points I need to know about using a 5.25" disk drive with Amigas? The drive is displayed as 880k under AmigaOs but I'm not sure i this is the right size yet I don't know how to modify it.

Any help is required and appreciated. Thanks.
 

Offline redrumloa

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2003, 07:43:17 PM »
What model drive? It is a commodore made Amiga floppy drive right? What model number?
Someone has to state the obvious and that someone is me!
 

Offline Rigger

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2003, 08:45:08 PM »
The A1020 is a 460K drive. I'll clip the mount from my mountlist once I get home to my Amiga and post it. Unless someone else posts it first.

 

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2003, 08:51:04 PM »
The drive looks quite generic. There's nothing written on any side of the case, which is totally metal, and quite slim. I suspect the disk drive connector is hand soldered as well. I got it second hand today.

Do I have to mount this manually then? I can't simply "mount df1:" can I?  :-D
 

Offline Kronos

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2003, 08:51:53 PM »
Hmmmmm

Back than (1991) I had a 5,25 from Robotron on my miggy, which
used 880k-formated DD-disks.

Not much use for that other than getting my Fish-Disk for
DM 1.20 instead of DM 2.50  ;-)
1. Make an announcment.
2. Wait a while.
3. Check if it can actually be done.
4. Wait for someone else to do it.
5. Start working on it while giving out hillarious progress-reports.
6. Deny that you have ever announced it
7. Blame someone else
 

Offline MikeB

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2003, 12:33:39 AM »
Are u stupid, there has never been a 5.25" disk made for the Amiga... sorry about calling you stupid.

If it has commodore on it it will be a Commodore 64 diskdrive which is not for the Amiga.

5.25" drives never make 880K so what planet is everyone one!!!!

 

Offline kwic

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2003, 01:04:55 AM »
 

Offline clark

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2003, 01:33:50 AM »
@erol

Not true on either count.  Commodore did make 5.25 drives for the Amiga, (the guy above me has the link).

Also, Commodore also made some 5.25 drives that could store a whole megabyte or more back in the PET days before my time.

Clark
 

Offline Siggy

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2003, 01:50:38 AM »
Quote
Also, Commodore also made some 5.25 drives that could store a whole megabyte or more back in the PET days before my time


Indeed - that would be the C= 1001 drive.
I ran a BBS off a Comodore 64 using 2 of these back in the early 80's.
You needed an ieee parallel interface plugged into the cart. port to run it :)

I remember 'upgrading' the bbs to a 5meg Pet HD -- The thing looked like a metal shoe box with a single led blinking on the front of it..

I still remember the oooohs and aaaaaaah's of my buds.

Cheers.
Siggy.
Quote
The TV business is uglier than most things.
 It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the Journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs,
 

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2003, 02:39:48 AM »
Erol right? If it's your real name and if you're living in London you must be from Northern Cyprus. I'm from Turkey and the least thing I were expecting to see is some convert ruining this thread.

I'm seriously looking for information on how to read, or even format disks with this device.  :-?
 

Offline Ilwrath

Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #10 on: March 26, 2003, 04:46:24 AM »
@erol-
There were, indeed 5.25" floppy drives for the Amiga...  I don't remember the specifics, but I remember seeing one in a 2000, and there was also an external model planned (and built?) for the Amiga 500/1000, even.  What do you think the command
c:diskchange is for???  3.5" floppies auto-sense a disk swap, you know...

@burseg-
That said, what makes you think its an Amiga device?  I've also seen Amigas fitted with 5.25" floppies for emulators only.  (The A2000 286 bridgeboard was sold with a 5.25 in most stores, even, IIRC)

If it IS an Amiga device, there should be a sample in your 1.2 or 1.3 workbench disk in devs/mountlist for how to mount a 5.25 floppy.  It is as simple as a mount df1, the only thing is, you have to specify what df1 is in your mountlist.  ;-)
 

Offline N7VQM

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #11 on: March 26, 2003, 05:36:06 AM »
Quote

I remember 'upgrading' the bbs to a 5meg Pet HD -- The thing looked like a metal shoe box with a single led blinking on the front of it..


I remember when I first saw CMD's 10MB harddisk for the C64.  I wanted one of those *SO* bad.  But, my mother wasn't willing to shell out the dough and my allowance would never cover it.  So, I made do with my 1541-II.  It wasn't until I had had my A500 for 3 years that I managed to get finally get a harddrive.  I gave all my 8-bit C= stuff away when I graduated high school.  I've been kicking myself ever since. :-(
\\"...an error of 1 is much less significant in counting the population of the Earth than in counting the occupants of a phone booth.\\" - Michael T. Heath, Scientific Computing...
 

  • Guest
Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2003, 07:02:05 AM »
It is an Amiga device because:
-It connects to the amiga's disk drive port and has an output for more disk drives
-It was bought from someone who did use it with an Amiga
-It is displayed as DF1 under 1.3 and 3.1 and can be ordered to format disks, alas it fails in the end with a "device error"
I'll check the mountlist thingy
 

Offline Desmon

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Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #13 on: March 26, 2003, 08:47:31 AM »
@Ilwrath wrote:
Quote
@erol-
There were, indeed 5.25" floppy drives for the Amiga...  I don't remember the specifics, but I remember seeing one in a 2000, and there was also an external model planned (and built?) for the Amiga 500/1000, even.  What do you think the command
c:diskchange is for???  3.5" floppies auto-sense a disk swap, you know...

The 5.25" drives for the A2000 were all PC drives. C= in their wisdom actually made an A1020 drive for the A1000 (I have one here) and it's the thing that needs the "C:DiskChange" command. A mountlist isn't needed if the media itself is formatted to the Amiga OFS (or FFS now that I think about it) standard.

There were even a few third-party 5.25" drives manufatured, and every one I've ever seen does exactly as the C= unit did.
Cache Ya,
Craig.


Busy playing with my Trainz and loving it!
 

  • Guest
Re: 5.25" disk drive
« Reply #14 on: March 26, 2003, 10:35:16 AM »
This wont help you much, but I have an unmarked 3rd party 5.25" Amiga floppy drive. It holds 880kB on a double sided disk.
Diskchange cmd is needed, afair, because a 5.25" drive wont be able to tell whether it has a disk or not.

I never had to use a specific mountlist or anything, it just worked =)

Another thing. It won't work as anything but DF2:. Im sure there's a switch somewhere, but I never found it.