<div dir="ltr">i have some but they have windows 1.01 on them. never got around to messing with them yet, so i am unable to offer them; just sort of fun.</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 3:58 PM, Jason Wright <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jasonwright365@gmail.com" target="_blank">jasonwright365@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><p dir="ltr">I do not know the density of the hard drives. I believe that most are high density- they come from computers that also have cdrom drives- relatively newer by comparison to when 3.5 in drives came out. They come from desktop and laptop computers. I assume that all the drives work, but will not test them.</p>
<p dir="ltr">If a trade is not possible, i can also sell them for $5 each (including shipping). If any are found not working or not high density, I will refund the prorated price.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I recycle and refurbish computers... if I can sell good parts for reuse, I'll give a fair deal.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Thanks,<br>
Jason</p><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">
<div class="gmail_quote">On Apr 20, 2014 12:47 PM, "Doug Reed" <<a href="mailto:n0nas@amsat.org" target="_blank">n0nas@amsat.org</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hi Mr B-o-B!<br>
<br>
You didn't say what kind of drives you are looking for; 3.5" high<br>
density, 3.5" standard density, 5.25" high density, 5.25" standard<br>
density 80 track or 40 track, double sided or single sided, or 8" high<br>
density, low density, hard sector, soft sector, or Vydeck.<br>
<br>
I will say that if this is for a disk duplication project where you<br>
will be using 3.5" or 5.25" HD drives, you have the best chance of<br>
success. If you are doing anything that requires making both 5.25" HD<br>
disks and 5.25" 360K low density disks, you should plan to have two<br>
sets of 5.25" drives because the track read-write width was different<br>
between 360K low density 40 track and 1.2MB high density 80 track.<br>
<br>
Chances are good you will not be using 8" drives, but if you do, there<br>
used to be software that would let you read 8" drives on your PC if<br>
you made your own control cable. It has been too many years to<br>
remember now but I know there was something about the old PC floppy<br>
disk controllers that made me buy a special controller card to get<br>
full capability for reading odd disk formats. Linux might even be the<br>
ideal OS for this kind of work since you can probably do anything you<br>
want with the right drivers.<br>
<br>
The final recommendation would be that you consider your options for<br>
proving the drives are good. I know that I've had good drives and bad<br>
drives over the years. Good drives usually had a bit better read-write<br>
head and electronics that gave a bit more margin on read. Bad drives<br>
had less margin and tended to give more read errors with marginal<br>
floppy disks, particularly when you get into high density media.<br>
<br>
And if you have 8 random drives from different vendors and manufacture<br>
dates, you probably have 8 drives with different physical alignment of<br>
the heads and no two the same. This tends to show up as difficulty<br>
reading a test disk, particularly on the inner tracks where data bits<br>
are packed the tightest on the media. I used to test my PC drives by<br>
formatting disks on each of them, then doing a surface scan of the<br>
disks as I swapped them between the other drives. Then I'd try to make<br>
sense of which drives had read errors on which floppies. The "keeper"<br>
drives were the ones that had no errors reading each other's disks<br>
since I could reasonably assume they had similar alignment and good<br>
read margin.<br>
<br>
30 years ago in the TRS-80 days, I had 3.5", 5.25", and 8" floppy<br>
drive alignment disks where I worked and I frequently aligned the<br>
floppy drives when they were returned to the shop. I haven't seen<br>
anyone selling alignment disks for along time now, and since 3.5" and<br>
5.25" drives are common as sand, I don't know that I'd bother with it<br>
today. Easier just to get a couple more drives and test them as above.<br>
<br>
And if you are duplicating floppies, be sure to pay attention to<br>
getting quality media. The cheaper disks are usually cheaper for a<br>
reason. Anyone who fought with 5.25" HD media knows that very well.<br>
The worst media I ever saw was at a three letter government agency and<br>
came from the lowest bidder. When you held it to the light and looked<br>
at the shiny surface, it looked like it had freckles. Each freckle was<br>
a high spot on the media that had been scraped off when the head went<br>
by and coated the read head like frost on your windshield on a cold<br>
winter morning. The build-up on the head reduced read margin until the<br>
drive couldn't read anything!<br>
<br>
If you can't collect enough old drives from the TClug list, you might<br>
want to put a Want on Craig's List or simply pick up some of the<br>
Free-haul-it-away computers on the list. Worst case I can give you the<br>
email address for a guy who scraps old computers as his business, but<br>
he might be the worst place to look since most of his scrap comes from<br>
companies that got rid of 5.25" drives 15-20 years ago.<br>
<br>
<<a href="http://www.twinslan.net" target="_blank">www.twinslan.net</a>><br>
If none of the above pans out, your last option might be the local<br>
hamfest (electronic swap meet, flea market) on June 7 in St Paul near<br>
3M Center. You'd have a pretty good chance of collecting a dozen<br>
drives out there, although 5" drives are getting pretty old even for<br>
hams...... I gave half a dozen old computers and drives to the<br>
scrapper last fall. I might have a few more drives if I look and knew<br>
what you wanted. :-)<br>
<br>
Doug Reed.<br>
<br>
<br>
On 4/20/14, <a href="mailto:tclug-list-request@mn-linux.org" target="_blank">tclug-list-request@mn-linux.org</a><br>
<<a href="mailto:tclug-list-request@mn-linux.org" target="_blank">tclug-list-request@mn-linux.org</a>> wrote:<br>
> Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 00:58:53 -0500<br>
> From: B-o-B De Mars <<a href="mailto:mr.chew.baka@gmail.com" target="_blank">mr.chew.baka@gmail.com</a>><br>
> To: TCLUG <<a href="mailto:tclug-list@mn-linux.org" target="_blank">tclug-list@mn-linux.org</a>><br>
> Subject: [tclug-list] Need 8 floppy drives<br>
><br>
> I am in need of as many old floppy drives that I can get my hands on.<br>
> The magic # I am looking for is 8, but would be interested in more.<br>
> I will give cash, or trade.<br>
> If anyone still has a pile of these drives collecting dust let me know.<br>
> Thanks!<br>
><br>
> Mr. B-o-B<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota<br>
<a href="mailto:tclug-list@mn-linux.org" target="_blank">tclug-list@mn-linux.org</a><br>
<a href="http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list" target="_blank">http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list</a><br>
</blockquote></div>
</div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota<br>
<a href="mailto:tclug-list@mn-linux.org">tclug-list@mn-linux.org</a><br>
<a href="http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list" target="_blank">http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br></div>