PC1512 was shipped with DOS 3.2, and it's 100% DOS compatible.

Just remember that the PSU was on the monitor, and the keyboard is not PC compatible.

If you get one of those with two drives, you may keep the first drive and put a 3.5 inch drive instead the first one (so you can use the other 5.25 drive on other computer). Just remember that 5.25 drives don't use 34 pin connectors, they use edge connectors (so you'll need a special floppy cable).

The Amstrad floppy drive looks to be a 360k drive. This page here explains you can swap them, so I have no reason to believe you can't also take a drive out of them and put them in another PC:
http://www.seasip.info/AmstradXT/hwcompat2.html

However, if you have media that is higher density than 360k (say, 720k or 1.2mb) then I suspect these drives will not work for you.

Ah! Thank you for your responses, this is all really useful information. I remember using 5.25" floppies in first school on BBC Micro computers, but I haven't used them since as my first computer was a Spectrum then an Amiga 1500, so I'm completely lost on the technology but it's great to have answers about them as I've always been in awe of the older formats.

I might have to do a bit more research as I wasn't even aware that I might need a different floppy cable. Is there anything else I should be aware of when looking for one of these bits of legacy hardware?

Overheat wrote:

I might have to do a bit more research as I wasn't even aware that I might need a different floppy cable. Is there anything else I should be aware of when looking for one of these bits of legacy hardware?

If you're intending on installing one in a machine that already has a 3.5" drive you might run into the problem that the BIOS only supports one drive. "Most" rigs you might want to play a DOS game on won't have this issue, but anything P4 or newer probably will.

You shouldn't have to spend £80 on a drive, even on ebay the expensive ones usually go for 40 euros.

Aside from the configuration issues, you need to be aware there's a chance that your floppies will be unreadable after all these years. It seems 5.25" floppies are definitely less reliable than 3.5" disks...

Yes the amstrad drives work on a bog standard PC. They're 360k as stated. Someone on amibay is selling dome 5.25 drives for 25-40 euros or so. Check it out!

Ah cool - I've never used AmiBay, I'll have to check it out. Another, probably stupid, question: are 1.2MB drives backwards compatible with smaller capacity disks?

Overheat wrote:

Ah cool - I've never used AmiBay, I'll have to check it out. Another, probably stupid, question: are 1.2MB drives backwards compatible with smaller capacity disks?

Should be fine as long as you don't try to format the disks as a higher capacity than they're rated for.

This thread might be useful research for you:
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.p … -5-1-4-floppies

Edit: Formatting low density floppies may require a special command line switch. Have a look at the /4 switch on this page:
http://www.computerhope.com/formathl.htm

I believe you can read 360k floppies in a 1.2m drive, but not write them. A 360k floppy written by a 1.2m drive would not be readable in a 360k drive, due to the tracks being thinner.

So I guess there is a reason ans use for 360 k drives. I always though if you had a 1.2 meg drive you would never need a 360 k. Good to know, thanks!

Tommaso

Hello,

I received the drive today. I've installed it and I'm stuck. So, if you might be able to help me, that would be great. I've tried using both cables that were provided (one has the 5.25" connector, a standard floppy connector with a twist and one without. The next cable has two 5.25" floppy connector one but otherwise is the same) and I can't seem to get both my 3.5" drive and my new 5.25" to appear in DOS. I assumed that one would be a: and the other would be b: but when I try to swap to b: it just uses the same drive again. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong!

Thank you in advance.

Overheat wrote:

Hello,

I received the drive today. I've installed it and I'm stuck. So, if you might be able to help me, that would be great. I've tried using both cables that were provided (one has the 5.25" connector, a standard floppy connector with a twist and one without. The next cable has two 5.25" floppy connector one but otherwise is the same) and I can't seem to get both my 3.5" drive and my new 5.25" to appear in DOS. I assumed that one would be a: and the other would be b: but when I try to swap to b: it just uses the same drive again. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong!

Thank you in advance.

Are the drives set correctly in the BIOS?

http://www.pc-stuff.co.uk/pcstuff/525.htm

This is all I seem to be able to find in BIOS:

Your computer's BIOS only supports a single floppy disk drive. You need a computer that supports both an A: and B: drive (that is two separate options to set two separate floppy disk drives).

Oh darn it - so now I need a new motherboard too - this retro gaming lark is hard work!

Another option is to buy an external USB 3.5" floppy disk drive, which will work via USB (and not the BIOS). Then you can set the internal drive to the 5.25" one. Or find a floppy disk controller card that you can put in one of the slots, then disable the motherboard's floppy disk controller and use the card-based one...

Oooo - that latter option sounds more appealing - i shall have to look into that 😀

Tuff one. BIOS only supports one unit.

I'm not sure it will work with a separate controller as it also has to be configured via BIOS. But then again it might work/display B: if BIOS finds it is available.