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Best way to test 5.25" drives

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First post, by tizzdizz

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I recently acquired 100+ 5.25" floppy disks from my dad, and don't have any 5.25" drives in my machines. I have 3 loose drives that I haven't been able to get working yet, but I don't know if it's the drives or just compatibility issues.

My other systems, I think, are either too new, or weren't intended for the 1.2MB drives (Dell XPS R350, Celeron 2.4 GHz). I have a Unisys 486-66, but it's a small form factor, has only 1x5.25" bay which currently has the CD rom drive, and it works perfectly, so I'm afraid to mess with it and cause issues as it was kind of hard to get going.

I was thinking of cobbling together a dedicated system, but the only decent MB I have that I think would work is a GigaByte GA-5SMM, SS7 with A K62-40 in it. https://classiccomputershop.eu/Webwinkel-Prod … -retro-90s.html

Two of the drives are Teac FD-55GFR, and the other one is a Toshiba FDD6784LB3.

The disks are all from Software Of The Month Club from the 80's, and I really would like to see what's on them, maybe image them. My dad says he has a ton more of these disks, and I'd imagine some others might be interested in them too.

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What should I do first? Clean them? Build the system, test it with working 3.5" drives, and then test each drive individually?

Reply 1 of 2, by Deksor

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I'd say the second option, don't clean a floppy disk unless it acts weird (though that's a good idea for a floppy drive) but be sure you don't damage them or disturb the head alignment, DON'T move the track 0 detector, etc.

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 2 of 2, by dkarguth

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A lot of newer motherboards don't like the 5.25 inch drives, they only are meant for 1.44 Mb drives. That doesn't go for all motherboards, just mostly the ones that only give you an option for one drive.

However, If you don't want to mess with it, I have a 286 machine in good working order with a 5.25 inch high density drive. I would be willing to image them with Winimage for you, if you'd like.

"And remember, this fix is only temporary, unless it works." -Red Green

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